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The Government will tomorrow (April 3) publish in the Gazette the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008. The new legislation aims to better assist consumers to make healthy food choices, regulate misleading or deceptive labels and claims, as well as encourage food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods for the benefit of public health.
Highlighting the various changes under the amendment regulation, a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said that to promote consumers' access to information, a mandatory nutrition labelling scheme for prepackaged food would be introduced in Hong Kong. This requires all prepackaged food to label energy plus seven core nutrients - protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugars - as well as any nutrient for which a claim is made.
The "one plus seven" scheme is in line with the recommendation put forward by the World Health Organisation to the Codex Committee on Food Labelling meeting in April, 2007.
"Hong Kong imports about 60% of prepackaged food from overseas. The nutrition labelling scheme is carefully formulated to balance the need to assist consumers in making food choices, and the need to help them maintain a diversity in food choices.
"To minimise the impact on food choices, the Administration has allowed ample flexibility in the labelling format of nutrients, provided for exemption for individual prepackaged food products with practical difficulty in observing the requirements, and for food products with small sales volume. These measures seek to facilitate compliance by the trade, " the spokesman said.
Subject to passage by the Legislative Council, the amendment regulation is proposed to come into force on July 1, 2010, after a two-year grace period.
Recognising the importance of promoting the benefits to be derived from food labels and educating people on how to read the nutrition information contained in the labels, the Government has set up a special Task Force on Nutrition Labelling Education comprising representatives from various professional organisations, like the Hong Kong Medical Association, to co-ordinate public education and promotion activities on nutrition labelling.
Education must come hand in hand with the new law to realise the full benefits of the nutrition labelling scheme for consumers. The publicity programme will include posters, pamphlets and other promotional activities to educate consumers on how to read the food labels.
"Workshops are also planned to further assist the food trade in adapting to the changes once the Amendment Regulation is passed by the Legislative Council," the spokesman said.
The amendment regulation will be tabled in the Legislative Council on April 9.
Ends/Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:37
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