Intertek Pre-packaged Food Testing Program

Consumers nowadays are more knowledgeable in making smart choices when buying pre-packaged food products in specialty stores or supermarkets. It’s easy to find product information, including nutrition facts and expiry date on packing, but there is no promise on safety, such as possible presence of harmful chemical substances and microorganisms.  A recognized Intertek Quality Mark gives consumers peace of mind.

Intertek’s pre-packaged food-testing program consists of a series of safety tests on certified products against recognized local regulations. The program covers all kinds of product-safety risk (e.g. aflatoxins that are carcinogenic and commonly found in nut products, and harmful Listeria bacteria in ice-cream etc.), thus giving extra confidence to consumers and adding real value to your brand.

The Program

The program supports food manufacturers and retailers with a wide range of food-safety solutions. A monitoring program is set for prepackaged ready-to-eat food products (e.g., confectionery, milk, sandwiches, etc). The program includes annual testing and quarterly surveillance testing of samples purchased from the market. 

Program Procedures

• Sample purchase from market by Intertek staff on a quarterly basis
• Conducts 3-6 major safety-concern test-parameters (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides, aflatoxin, microbial tests) based on food category annually.
• Lab to select 1 test-parameter for testing in the second, third and fourth sampling as part of quarterly market surveillance. 

Intertek Quality Mark

A “Quality Mark” will be granted to food manufacturers or retailers when test results fulfill Hong Kong Food Regulations. They will be permitted to display the mark on their food products under the program.