. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/HKG/28 
26 September 2008  
 (08-4532) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
 
NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCY MEASURES  
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   HONG KONG, CHINA
 
If applicable, name of local government involved:    
2. Agency responsible:   Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Government of 
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Melamine in food 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable :  
Countries/places exporting food to Hong Kong, China  
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:  Amendment to the 
Harmful Substances in Food Regulations  (available in English, 1 page) 
http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2008/sps/HKG/08_3054_00_e.pdf  
6. Description of content:  To amend the Harmful Substances in Food Regulations by adding 
melamine to the First Schedule of the Regulations. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [   ] plant protection, 
[ X ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [   ] protect territory from other damage from pests    
8. Nature of the urgent problem(s) and reason for urgent action:  Since early/mid 
September 2008, melamine was found in the infant formula produced by the Mainland 
China's Sanlu brand and there were infant s in the Mainland China who suffered from 
kidney stones and kidney failure after consum ing the affected products.  The Hong Kong 
Government thereafter has been conducting test s on various dairy products and the testing 
results revealed that melamine was present in  some of the samples.  The incident has 
aroused immense public concern over the safet y of milk powder and milk products.  The 
existing Harmful Substances in Food Regulations  do not explicitly prohibit the presence of 
melamine in food imported, consigned, deliv ered, manufactured or sold in Hong Kong, 
China.  Neither do they specify the maximu m concentration of melamine allowable in 
food.  To ensure food safety and protect public health, the government needs to prohibit inappropriate level of melamine in food by  amending the law accordingly.  Given the 
immense public pressure, legislative am endment has to proceed urgently. G/SPS/N/HKG/28 
Page 2  
 
  9. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [   ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the 
appropriate reference and briefly identify deviations:   
In setting the maximum concentration of me lamine under the Amendment Regulation, the 
government has taken into cons ideration of the followings: 
− melamine is not a food additive and the add ition of melamine into  food is not approved 
by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius or by any national authorities; 
− traces of melamine may be present in food due to migration of melamine from utensils/ 
packaging made of melamine-formaldehyde resin; 
− melamine can also be an environmental contaminant and small amount may be present 
as an environmental metabolite of pesticide; 
− a Tolerable Daily Intake of 0.63 mg/kg bw/d ay for melamine is established by the US 
Food and Drug Administration for assessing human  health risk associated with eating 
pork, chicken, fish and eggs from animals th at had been inadvertently fed animal feed 
that may have been adulterated with melamine; 
− infants and young children of three years old or below are in general to be more 
vulnerable to kidney stone formation and add itional safety factor of 2 is introduced. 
10. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:   Amendment to the 
Harmful Substances in Food Regulations  (available in English, 1 page) 
11. Date of entry into force/period of application (as applicable):  The Amendment 
Regulation will take effect on the date of the gazettal, i.e. 23 September 2008. 
12. Agency or authority designated to handle comments: [   ] National notification 
authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if 
available) of other body:  
Trade and Industry Department  
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 17/F., Trade and Industry Department Tower 700 Nathan Road 
Hong Kong 
Tel:  +(852) 2398 5398 Fax:  +(852) 2789 2491 E-mail:  mdiv@tid.gov.hk 
13. Texts available from: [   ] National notifica tion authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:  
Trade and Industry Department  
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 
17/F., Trade and Industry Department Tower 700 Nathan Road Hong Kong Tel:  +(852) 2398 5398 
Fax:  +(852) 2789 2491 
E-mail:  mdiv@tid.gov.hk