[3] The motivations behind FEHD's establishment were mostly because of an institutional “system failure and negligence” to address repeated incidents in food handling and food-borne infectious diseases.

[4] As Dr. Leong Che-hung, former Legislative Council member noted, Hong Kong was on the verge of a cholera outbreak caused by filthy and unhygienic states of food manufacturers earlier in 1997, which was exacerbated by the Provisional Regional and Urban Councils’ failure to oversee the actual operations after issuing licences, and the Department of Health's failure to step in in time.

The new department proposed to consolidate functions that were performed by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the FEHD, including the monitoring and controlling of imported and local live food and non-food animals, poultry and birds, and the safety of vegetables, meat, seafood and food products.

However, the reorganisation was never implemented due to doubts and concerns by legislators as to the effectiveness of the new department in improving quality control of Mainland and foreign food supplies.

Its establishment was first proposed in 2005, after a chain of food safety incidents of an outbreak of Streptococcus suis and freshwater fish contaminated with malachite green.

COVID-19 Pandemic in Hong Kong (2020 - present) FEHD has been conducting joint operations with the Police to take enforcement measures against parties like catering businesses and their customers, general public, etc.

To enhance the efficiency of cleaning, the FEHD actively explores the use of new technologies to improve the hygiene of public toilets.

The RIS is a useful indicator for the general situation of rodent infestation in individual survey locations and forms the basis for devising anti-rodent measures.

To step up law enforcement to keep Hong Kong clean, the Fixed Penalty System against the following common public cleanliness offences is introduced to tackle littering; spitting; unauthorised display of bills or posters; and fouling of street by dog faeces.

In September 2016, a fixed penalty system was introduced as an additional enforcement tool to deal with the problem of shop front extensions.

Street management issue falls within the ambit of several government departments requiring joint-departmental efforts, of which the FEHD has been taking enforcement actions against illegal activities.

[15] Administration of the Anti-Epidemic Fund Following the Government's earlier announcement of the Sixth Round of the Anti-epidemic Fund, subsidies will be provided to commercial bathhouse licence holders, places of public entertainment licence (PPEL) holders and tenants of cooked food/light refreshment stalls at Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Markets subsidy scheme.

It operates six government crematoria (at Cape Collinson in Hong Kong Island, Diamond Hill in Kowloon, Fu Shan, Kwai Chung, Wo Hop Shek and Cheung Chau in the New Territories) and eleven public columbaria (at Cape Collinson and Wong Nai Chung Road in Hong Kong Island, Diamond Hill in Kowloon, Fu Shan, Kwai Chung, Tsang Tsui, Wo Hop Shek, Cheung Chau, Lamma Island, Peng Chau and Lai Chi Yuen in the New Territories).

Under the Summary Offences Ordinance, obstruction of public places carries a maximum fine of HK$5000 and three months imprisonment.

[25] A Shatin community group also issued a petition in support of Suen, which reportedly collected more than 50 signatures from residents in the district.

[27] Under the Public Hygiene and Municipal Services Ordinance, first convictions of unlicensed hawking carry a maximum monetary penalty of HK$5,000 and one month in prison.

After the story went public, around 30 Hongkongers staged a protest against the FEHD at the Central and Western District Environmental Hygiene Office.

The Civic Party also launched a petition demanding that the FEHD drop their charges against Chu, return her property, and apologise to her.

[28] After consulting the Department of Justice and considering Chu's background, the FEHD dropped the unlicensed hawking activity charge against the 75-year-old.

Besides, FEHD's monitoring over the performance of outsourced contractors was commonly considered as inadequate, with complaints about rubbish piling up on the streets, and the poor cleansing of environmental hygiene black spots remain prominent.

Similarly, the management of about 800 public toilets in the territory lies within the responsibility of the FEHD, and the daily cleansing and minor repairs are outsourced to the department's contractors.

Such a situation is not only considered as bringing inconvenience to the public, but also creating a negative impact to Hong Kong's image.

In view of the situation, the Ombudsman of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, Ms Winnie Chiu, announced on May 15, 2019, two direct investigations to examine the monitoring of outsourced street cleansing services by the FEHD, and the management of public toilets.

It was reported that in a prosecution case of black worm being found inside a dish of boiled prawns, the FEHD have failed to pursue prosecution against the reported restaurant The FEHD had defended itself by claiming that the species of the worm could not be determined despite repeated examinations at its Pest Control division, government laboratories and the Biodiversity Conservation Division of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.Therefore, the Centre for Food Safety under FEHD has therefore decided not to prosecute the restaurant due to lack of sufficient evidence, and the possibility that the worm was in the shrimp itself, claiming that a warning letter to the restaurant was enough to impose a deterrent effect.

The Ombudsman also suggested that there are difficulties for consumers to determine whether the food products they purchase are safe to eat, while the FEHD should be held responsible for gatekeeping.

An FEHD spokesperson said the department will accept the recommendations from the Ombudsman and that they have taken measures to improve the existing mechanism on handling complaints and investigations.

[32] An SCMP editorial criticized the government and stated that "Officials should be giving a reason as to why the Democratic Party's successful bid for a dry goods stall at the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair was rejected.