FEHD launches two-week "Operation Skynet" to target pest and hygiene issues at food premises
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) attaches great importance to recent incidents involving pest and rodent infestation and food hygiene in food premises. Apart from following up promptly on individual cases, the department has launched a two-week special inspection and enforcement operation codenamed "Operation Skynet" from today (September 30), targeting supermarkets, restaurants and other premises engaged in the sale, storage or processing of food. The operation will enhance inspections of environmental hygiene, pest and rodent prevention measures, food storage and handling, and whether contaminated food continues to be offered for sale.
The department will flexibly deploy its operation strategies in response to recent complaints, cases identified through social media and district-level risks. If hygiene or pest and rodent problems are identified, the department will require the premises to make immediate improvements, issue statutory Notices of Elimination of Vermin, and take enforcement action as appropriate. If there is sufficient evidence of a contravention, the FEHD will follow up seriously and institute prosecution in accordance with the law. The FEHD will focus on actual risks, whether immediate improvements have been made, and whether the problems continue to be addressed, rather than measuring its work solely by the number of inspections conducted. If irregularities are found, the department will increase the frequency of inspections and follow-up inspections to ensure that the problems are rectified.
As of 6pm today, the department inspected 288 supermarkets, 16 restaurants and 23 other food premises, issued 28 Notices of Elimination of Vermin, 22 Notices of Requirement to Cleanse and Repair Food Premises and one warning, and instituted two prosecutions. The department will continue the operation in the next two weeks and adjust its deployment based on the inspection results.
Regarding the incident at a supermarket on Tong Mei Road in Prince Edward where a rodent was alleged to have crawled over and nibbled on fruits, the FEHD deployed staff to conduct an inspection today, focusing on the rodent infestation, rodent prevention measures and food handling. During the inspection, the hygiene condition of the premises was found to be unsatisfactory. A statutory notice was issued to the person responsible, requiring necessary measures to be taken to eliminate the rodent infestation and carry out cleaning and disinfection. Any food that has been or is reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by rodents must not continue to be offered for sale. The department will follow up on the handling of the food concerned and take action in accordance with the law based on the results of the investigation and evidence collection.
As for the incident involving a suspected cockroach found in a bowl of noodles at a restaurant in Tai Wai, the department deployed staff to inspect the premises today, focusing on environmental hygiene, food handling procedures and pest and rodent control measures. During the inspection, the FEHD found that the refrigerator door in the food room was damaged and unclean, and instituted prosecution against the person responsible under the Food Business Regulation (Cap. 132X). The FEHD officers also provided the person responsible with food safety and environmental hygiene education, as well as advice on pest and rodent control, reminding them to maintain good food, personal and environmental hygiene at all times and adopt effective pest and rodent control measures. The department will examine the site inspection findings, complaint information and other available objective evidence to clarify the course of events and follow up in accordance with the law.
The department has also recently been collaborating with the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health to follow up on two epidemiologically linked cases of human infection with rat Hepatitis E virus. According to the CHP's current epidemiological investigation, the source of infection for the patients is most likely a restaurant they frequently patronised, and it cannot be ruled out that the patients might have come into indirect contact with places or food contaminated by rats or their excreta during the incubation period. The restaurant concerned has suspended operations in accordance with the FEHD's instructions to carry out thorough cleaning, disinfection and rodent control work.
The FEHD further expanded the scope of its follow-up action today, inspecting not only the restaurant involved but also the shopping mall where it is located, and contacting other tenants to review environmental hygiene and rodent control measures. During the inspections, environmental hygiene and potential pest and rodent infestation problems were identified at certain premises or locations within the shopping mall. A total of seven Notices of Elimination of Vermin were issued to the persons responsible for the premises, requiring improvement measures to be taken. The department will conduct follow-up inspections to ensure that the relevant measures are properly implemented.
The FEHD has always adopted a risk-based inspection and enforcement strategy. Existing food hygiene and pest and rodent control requirements cover aspects such as environmental hygiene of premises, food storage and handling, prevention of contamination, and pest and rodent control. Food business operators have a responsibility to maintain sound day-to-day hygiene management continuously, detect and address signs of pest and rodent infestation at an early stage, and ensure that contaminated or suspected contaminated food is no longer supplied. Government inspections and enforcement cannot replace operators' responsibility for day-to-day management.
"Operation Skynet" will also focus on reviewing whether premises have genuinely implemented prevention and control at source, including the handling of refuse and food waste, food storage, rodent prevention facilities, hygiene in back-of-house and storage areas, and environmental factors that may facilitate the entry and exit of rodents or pests. The department will put forward specific improvement requirements to operators based on inspection results and conduct follow-up inspections of key or problematic premises to ensure that improvement measures are not one-off measures but are implemented continuously.
Rodent control requires corresponding measures to be taken according to the management responsibility for different types of premises. The FEHD is mainly responsible for rodent prevention and eradication in public places within its areas of responsibility, while other government departments are responsible for rodent prevention and eradication at the premises they manage. As for private shopping malls, residential premises and other private premises, day-to-day environmental hygiene and rodent-control work is primarily the responsibility of owners, persons responsible for the premises and property management companies. The FEHD will provide professional advice in response to complaints and specific risk situations, and take action in accordance with the law where necessary.
To encourage private premises to participate proactively in rodent control, the FEHD has extended the Anti-Rodent Charter to shopping malls, encouraging owners, operators and property management companies to build regular rodent-prevention mechanism. As of September this year, about 130 shopping mall organisations and groups had joined the Charter, covering about 8 200 shops.
Rodent control is a shard responsibility of the entire community and cannot rely solely on government inspections and rodent eradication work. The Government will continue to monitor, provide support and take action in accordance with the law; the trade, property management companies and persons responsible for various premises must properly carry out day-to-day management; and members of the public must also work together to safeguard environmental hygiene. Only when all parties fulfil their respective responsibilities and start with day-to-day management can an effective and long-term rodent-prevention mechanism be established. Practical rodent prevention and control measures address the three basic elements of rodent survival - food, harbourage and access routes - by cutting off food sources, eliminating hiding places and blocking access routes.
Source: AI-found images
