The Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regional government have agreed to strengthen the already well-established food safety notification mechanism.

This was the message from Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Carrie Yau after meeting officials from the ministries of agriculture and commerce, and the State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in Beijing Thursday.

They discussed a number of issues including improvements to food safety, importation of live poultry, and avian influenza updates.

Officials of the central and regional governments are very concerned about recent cases of illegal food processing that caused alarm among consumers about the quality and safety of pre-packed food products, said Yau.

They agreed that enhanced information flow between the retail end and controlling authorities will help crack down on illegal mainland food workshops, Yau added.

"At the same time, we have discussed ways to step up public education on food safety to promote and enhance awareness of the consumers and food traders," she said.

Source: Xinhua