The FEHD is the authority responsible for licensing food businesses and issuing permits for the sale of restricted foods including frozen confections, sushi and sashimi. It also issues licences to places of public entertainment such as theatres, cinemas and entertainment machine centres. In addition, it issues trade licences for private swimming pools, commercial bathhouses and offensive trades such as tannery and processing of sharks' fins. The FEHD also provides support to the Liquor Licensing Board, which is an independent statutory body constituted for the purpose of issuing liquor licences. The Chief Executive appoints board members who meet about four times a month to consider applications.

During the year, the department received and processed 2 587 applications for food business licences, 1 149 for restricted food permits, 825 for places of public entertainment licences, 58 for other trade licences, 817 for liquor and club liquor licences and 133 for permits for karaoke establishments situated in premises with a restaurant licence.

Alfresco dining has been gaining popularity in recent years. Since 2002, the FEHD has streamlined application procedures to provide a 'one-stop-shop' service to applicants. During the year, the department approved 42 applications.

The FEHD also develops and puts forward new initiatives in consultation with the Legislative Council and the trade to further improve hygiene in food premises, and thereby enhance food safety. To strengthen the control of the quality of fish tank water in food premises, a new risk-based surveillance programme has been launched since January 2004. While the frequency of taking water samples of fish tank from food premises selling live marine fish and shell fish for examination of Escherichia coli remains once every eight weeks, the action level is adjusted to 180 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100 millilitres. This helps provide an early alert signal to those premises with deteriorating quality of fish tank water or faulty disinfection system so that remedial measures can be carried out in a timely manner. Under the new surveillance programme, a total of five unsatisfactory fish water tank samples with the presence of Vibrio cholerae were detected followed by the execution of five closure orders against those food premises concerned.

In addition, four closure orders were executed against licensed food premises by the FEHD in the year due to outbreak of food poisoning cases.

In April, the FEHD launched an Incentive Scheme for Hygiene Improvement in Food Premises to provide loans to operators of licensed food businesses to carry out works for improving hygiene standards of their premises. The first round of the scheme ended in July. The second round commenced in October and would last until January 2005.