Hong Kong’s first-ever pesticide regulation was enacted in June 2012 and will come into effect August 2014 following a two-year grace period which allows the trade to get familiarized with the new regulation. According to the original thinking of the Hong Kong government (HKG), the MRLs and EMRLs on the Regulation were to be amended before August 1, 2014 with the effect of incorporating 2012 and 2013 updates by Codex and proposals put forth by stakeholders after the enactment of the Regulation in 2012.
In early 2014, the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety (CFS) provided a summary of their proposed revision of the MRLs/EMRLs to the Legislative Council (LegCo) for consultation. (Please see report hk1414.) Among the proposed changes, the deletions of three pesticides (fosetyl aluminium, thidiazuron and triphenyltin hydroxide) from MRLs listing raised concerns by certain members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo). The proposed deletions were based on a stakeholder’s comments and the CFS agreed to the suggestion explaining that Codex has not set any standards for the three pesticides in question. However, the LegCo members insisted that food safety should not be compromised and questioned the government’s justification given that not all MRLs on the Hong Kong pesticide list have had international consensus.
To address the concerns of the LegCo members, the CFS decided not to amend the pesticide list before the effective date of August 1. Also, the CFS will have the entire proposed revised list to be examined by a Working Group. As such, the pesticide list enacted in 2012 will be enforced after August 1 and will not include Codex updates of 2012 and 2013.
However, the HKG assured the trade that they will do a risk assessment in cases where they find unlisted pesticides in food samples. The risk assessment will take into account the local food consumption patterns and Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) among other factors. The import or sale of food is allowed if consumption of the food is not dangerous or prejudicial to health. According to the HKG, with this risk assessment mechanism in place, the trade should not be affected even if the effective pesticide MRL list might not have the latest Codex updates.
