​Hong Kong Customs and the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) today (April 27) stated that both departments will continue to work closely in combating the illegal import or smuggling of regulated food on all fronts.
As the epidemic eases, normal travel between Hong Kong and Mainland has been resumed since February 6. In the first quarter of this year, Customs detected about 190 cases of illegal imports or smuggling of regulated food, which amounts to over 90 per cent of the approximately 200 similar cases detected last year. This reflects that there has been a significant increasing trend in such cases recently. On the other hand, Customs effected three large-scale regulated food smuggling cases in the first quarter of this year, which is also more than the number of the same kind of cases (i.e. zero) detected in the same period last year.
The CFS said illegally imported food comes from unknown sources and is not under control, making it difficult to prove the safety of consumption. Also, the food concerned might have been exposed to dangerous temperatures and environments with poor hygiene during the smuggling process, increasing food safety risks and threatening the health of the public.
With the Labour Day Golden Week approaching, Customs and the CFS reminded members of the public not to import regulated food illegally from the Mainland or overseas for the sake of convenience, so as to avoid criminal liability and affect their health.
According to the Imported Game, Meat, Poultry and Eggs Regulations (Cap. 132AK), it is an offence to bring any game, meat, poultry or eggs into Hong Kong without a health certificate issued by an issuing entity of the place of origin and/or without prior written permission granted by the FEHD. An offender shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for six months.
Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.
Customs and the CFS will keep up close co-operation while joint operations will be conducted to combat illegal food import activities.
Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
Ends/Thursday, April 27, 2023