Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety will launch a pre-statutory voluntary notification scheme from November 1 for importers and distributors of fruit and vegetables.

"The Government is planning to introduce a food safety bill which will require local food importers and distributors to register with the CFS to facilitate the identification of the importers and distributors, tracing the source of food and taking follow-up action in case of any food incident," a CFS spokesman said.

The pre-statutory voluntary notification scheme has been implemented in phases for importers and distributors of game, meat and poultry meat, live food animals and live poultry, and milk, milk beverage, cream and frozen confectionery. From November 1, the CFS will accept notification applications from fruit and vegetable importers and distributors, including local farmers selling their produce to other distributors/retailers. They are encouraged to notify the CFS of their business registration number, address, telephone number and person-in-charge.

The CFS will implement the pre-statutory voluntary notification scheme for importers and distributors of fish and fishery products in December.

The list of importers and distributors will be uploaded onto the CFS website after the information provided by the participating importers and distributors has been collated for the reference of local wholesalers and retailers.