Two shops were fined for selling chilled or frozen pork as fresh pork

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department cracked down on sale of chilled or frozen pork disguised as fresh pork.

Officials conducted 28 blitz operations against 64 fresh provision shops and public market stalls since January, two of which were convicted and fined. The fresh provision shop surrendered its licence, while the tenancy of the market stall concerned was terminated by the department.

Since January, the FEHD has received 147 complaints about selling chilled or frozen pork disguised as fresh pork and conducted over 7,000 inspections.

Under the Food Business Regulation, 35 prosecutions were made against 33 fresh provision shops and market stalls for selling fresh pork and un-pre-packaged chilled pork or restricted food. Ten cases were convicted and fined, and 25 cases are pending trial by court.

Spokesman from FEHD said that traders have sold chilled or frozen pork disguised as fresh pork for profit as the number of live pigs supplied to Hong Kong from the Mainland dropped since the outbreak of African Swine Fever epidemic.

The FEHD said that they will speed up the process of permitting fresh provision shops selling chilled pork. The department has received and approved a total of 23 relevant applications this year.