Hong Kong's food safety standards remain high, as only 0.3 percent of about 62,000 food samples failed the microbiological and chemical tests the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department conducted last year.

Assistant Director of Food & Environmental Hygiene Thomas Chung said Thursday that the number of food samples tested last year went up 14.8 percent when compared with the 54,000 samples in 2002and 2003.

According to a government press release Thursday, about 22,600 food samples went through microbiological tests last year, with 24 samples including sashimi, cakes and noodles found to contain pathogens. This represents a failure rate of 0.1 percent, the same as in 2002 and 2003.

As for chemical analyses, of the 37,700 food samples tested, 136 were found to be unsatisfactory, representing a failure rate of 0.4 percent. This low rate was comparable to that found in 2002and 2003.

Chung noted some unscrupulous meat sellers deliberately used sulphur dioxide, which is not permitted under the law, to improve the color and shelf-life of fresh meat. The department took enforcement actions against these practices, resulting in the prosecution of 11 cases last year.

Turning to pesticides, Chung said significant improvement was seen in related tests on 19,000 samples, with 17 failures recorded last year, compared with 56 in 2002 and 20 in 2003. About 17,000 samples were tested each year in 2002 and 2003.

Chung said the improvement could be attributed to the follow-up actions and stepped-up surveillance in response to food complaints in the previous years.

Editor: Yan