Technical Seminar on Product Testing and Certification 2013

The Technical Seminar on Product Testing and Certification was held on 27 April 2013. The seminar was annually event and jointly organized by Department of System Engineering and Engineering Management of City University of Hong Kong (SEEM, CityUHK), Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Section (MIES), The IET Hong Kong, and MILES Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and America Society for Quality (ASQ - HK) were supporting organizations. The seminar aims to discuss and share the latest trends and technologies in testing and certification industry in Hong Kong and invited several experts to share their experiences and knowledge in the foods/food containers/toxicological testing. Moreover, I was honour to be invited as one of speakers to share Quality Journey on Technology Support Centre in HKSTP. The summary was shown below.

In the beginning, Prof. Kwok TSUI (Head of Dept. & Chair Professor of SEEM, CityU) gave a welcoming speech. He expressed that Quality was important in the Testing and Certification Industry.

Then Ir. Ho Chi Sing (Deputy Chairman, Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA)) presented an opening remark. Ir. Ho pointed that the most important in the industry was Integrity. The he introduced HKQAA objective in the macroscopic view in Hong Kong.

After that IET and MILESAA presented souvenir to guest speakers and supporting organizations. I received the souvenir.

Dr. Xueping CHEN (CTO, Vitargent (International) Biotechnology Ltd.) received the souvenir. (Her company is HKSTP incubatee.)

Group photo of all speakers and representatives of supporting organizations

I (Quality Manager, BDTS of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation) was the first speaker and my topic entitled "HKSTP - Technology Support Centre's ISO journey". Firstly, I shared our vision, mission and values.

After Science Park introduction, I briefed our ISO journey of ISO 9001, ISO 17025 (HOKLAS), ISO 27001 and OHSAS 18001 since 2003.

Eight Quality Management Principles were employed in Technology Support Centre (TSC). Then the HOKLAS work flow was briefed. After that ISO 27001 Information Security Management System development story was stated. Finally, Laboratory Safety organization and achievement was shared. We had planned to achieve ISO 14001 Environmental Management System in Laboratories in next year.

During the seminar, my friend Dr. Luk Chi Fai had also attended.

The second speaker was Dr. Xueping CHEN (Co-Founder & CTO, Vitargent (International) Biotechnology Limited) and her presentation was "Development of Innovative Biotests for estrogens and dioxins".

Dr. Chen introduced her company which was established in April 2010 and located in Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP). Then she introduced their unique testing method such as Estrogen Disruptors testing, Fish Embryo Toxicity Testing ISO 15088 (HOKLAS accredited), etc.
(This achievement had published in HKSTPConnect at http://mail02.edm.hkstp.org/intimate/templates/images/hkstp_connect/40/en-us/news2.html.)

Their core technology was transgenic medaka which had developed which Dr. Chen studied in CityU for her PhD.

Before break, Ir. Lam Man-Kwan brief the membership of MILESAA and IET.

The third speaker was Mr. Wallace Luk (Technical Manager - Chemical Department, UL VS Hong Kong Limited) and his topic named "Safety of Food-contact utensils". Food contact utensils used different materials such as plastic, ceramic, stainless steel, glass and paper.

Mr. Luk reviewed the safety requirement for food contact articles (EU & US) and listed some common food regulations as follows.
- EU (EC 1935/2004, EC 10/2011, 84/500/EC, etc)
- FDA (21 CFR 175)
- LFGB (Formerly called LMBG)
- Japan Food Sanitation Law, others (GB, Taiwan, France, etc.)

Mr. Luk briefed the different requirements of different country that Some specific migration elements for plastic container included heavy metals, primary aromatic amines (PAA), melamine, formaldehyde, phthalates and bis-phenol A (BPA); for ceramic included lead and cadmium. The he introduced different analysis method to detect such migration.

The last speaker was Mr. Kenneth C.K. To (Assistant Sales Manager, Business Development Division, CMA Testing and Certification Laboratories) and his presentation topic was "The Importance of Food Safety and Microbiological Test".

Mr. To mentioned the key problem of food safety non-conformity in 2012. Some important cases were identified such as DEHP in wine. Many toxic event related to Chemical material (~52%) and harmful bacteria/microbes (~31%). After that Mr. To introduced Food Laws in Hong Kong and their real-time PCR testing for different bacteria/microbes.

Q&A session.

IET (HK) executive committee members and guest took a group photo at the end.

Reference:
SEEM of CityUHK - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/
IET (HK) - http://www.theiet.org.hk/
MILES Alumni Association - http://www2.ise.polyu.edu.hk/milesaa/mission1.asp
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/index.asp