Newsletter No. 472

472 • 4.2.2016 7 禍從口入 Food for Fault 食物安全近年在香港及鄰近地區成為熱門話題。少肉、天然 食品成為健康飲食的近義詞,然而,去年十月世界衞生組織 發表報告,正式把加工肉類列為一級致癌物,表示有證據顯 示它與癌症有關,在世界各地仍然引起莫大迴響。 該報告也把紅肉(豬肉其實也算紅肉)列為2A級致癌物,表 示它可能引致癌病。 報告針對加工肉類與結腸癌的關係,加工肉類的定義是任 何為了增加味道或保存期限而以鹽腌、發酵、煙薰處理的肉 類。這個定義涵蓋了很多傳統的處理食物方法。 根據世衞分析,只要每天進食五十毫克的加工肉類,患上結 腸癌的機會便會上升18%。五十毫克的分量,大概相當於一 隻熱狗,或兩片火腿,又或是六塊煙肉,分量不算大,但世衞 明確指出對健康有害。 維多利亞時代著名小說家Anthony Trollope,其母Frances Trollope(1774 – 1863)也寫小說。有次她提及她創作的靈 感來源:「我從生活取材,但我每次都會把取材對象剁碎攪 爛,然後上碟,正如你不會在香腸中見到豬一樣。」 我們平日吃到的香腸,裏面真的有很多豬以外但不為人知的 材料。 大數據年代,食物安全也高科,我們有很多渠道核證吃進肚 子的東西。在政府的食物安全中心網頁可找到不少有用資 料。中大的食品研究中心更設有資料庫,供業界檢索常見食 品的營養參考數據,以及大中華食物安全信息等。 The Report speaks with uncharacteristic certainty about the relationship of processed meat with colorectal cancer. Processed means transformed through ‘salting, curing, fermentation, smoking or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation’. The definition covers quite a wide range of traditional food treatment processes. According to WHO, 50 grammes of processed meat a day would increase the chance of colorectal cancer by 18%. That is just about a hotdog, two slices of ham or six bacon strips, hardly American portions but enough to, the Report states in no ambiguous terms, put you at a higher risk. Frances Trollope (1774–1863), mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope, also wrote a number of well-received novels during her lifetime. She once talked about inspirations for her fictions: ‘I draw from life—but I always pulp up my acquaintances before serving them up. You would never recognize a pig in a sausage.’ There is indeed much more than a pig in a sausage that a diner doesn’t even know exists. Concerns with food safety have aligned with Big Data to offer a glimpse of hope, however. Some useful information and safety tips are available from the government’s Centre for Food Safety. The Food Research Centre of CUHK also offers databases on food compositions and on food safety in Greater China. 字裏高科 Tech Talks 寶健保健 Wealth In Health Food safety has been very much on the public consciousness of Hong Kong and the neighbouring regions in recent years. Less meat and less processing are synonymous to healthy eating in current thinking. Still, when the World Health Organization (WHO) published its report last October, the shockwave it sent through our kitchens and breakfast tables was enormous. It formally categorizes processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning there’s clear evidence that it is linked to cancer. The same report also puts red meat (diners beware: pork is red meat!) in Group 2A, meaning it probably causes cancer. 影子系統帶來的兩難 Shades of the Shadow 政府、公共機構和大企業的行政管理系統,由於要處理繁瑣 的流程和管理大量數據,一般都非常繁複。而且這些系統設 計複雜,對穩定性和安全性要求均極高,大機構現時都傾向 採購現成的「企業資源規劃」系統,而不會自行編寫程式。 這個做法本無可厚非,但一個令人頭痛的現象是在這些由企 業中央推動的系統以外,通常還存在一些由個別部門自行編 寫營運的「影子系統」,處理的多與人事管理、財務、成本計 算等有關。 不少影子系統是在引入中央系統以前,個別部門為解決自身 業務流程而自行編制的;另一些影子系統則因為中央系統無 法有效照顧個別部門的業務需要而出現。人們或會不禁問: 為甚麼這些大型企業資源規劃系統不能涵蓋所有部門的需 求呢? 系統開發商為了把系統設計成可供大部分行業使用,就必須 將最主流的業務流程編入程式,而同時捨棄次要和不太常見 的流程和數據。一般而言,開發商不會輕易為單一客戶重新 編寫或修改系統。再者,修改後的系統穩定性存疑,日後更 新升級也會帶來困難。在中央系統不能完全照顧部門時,影 子系統便應運而生了。 影子系統林立的壞處則是顯而易見:各部門流程各自為政、 企業浪費資源管理多套系統、數據無法整合,以及中央不能 掌握最新最準確的營運數據等。這個問題屬於變革管理的 範疇,不應視作技術課題來處理,而應尋求所有執行人員的 認同,再由他們發揮智慧,謹小慎微,耐心處之。 Due to their inherent complexity and the sheer volume of data to be processed, the information systems in the government, public organizations and large corporations are anything but simple. Their designs are complex and a high level of reliability and security is called for. Hence, a user institution tends to acquire an off-the-shelf enterprise resources planning (ERP) system instead of developing its own. This is all very well, except that ‘shadow systems’ developed by individual outfits within the institution are often found co-existing with the centralized system, to serve various functions from human resource and financial management to costing. Many shadow systems are born out of the necessity of keeping the outfits going prior to the introduction of the centralized system. Others are developed after the arrival of an ERP system for functions not served by it. One may then ask, why couldn’t the ERP system solve the problems of all the outfits? To target the largest possible number of potential users, developers build their systems with reference to the most common business processes and, in doing so, disregard the not-so-common ones. Normally, a system developer would not reprogramme or revise a system to cater for a single client’s special needs. In any case, the reliability of a reprogrammed or revised system is questionable, and the system hard to update or upgrade. When a centralized system cannot answer the prayer of every outfit, shadow systems are given a niche to survive and thrive. The undesirability of a proliferation of shadow systems is obvious: every outfit has its own modus operandi, the institution has to expend resources in managing a hodgepodge of systems, incompatible data, and the whole purpose of having a single source of updated management data is defeated. However, the challenge should not be viewed as a technical one but rather a change management one that requires the patience and prudence of all those managing the changes. 梁光漢 Philip Leung

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDE2NjYz