In accordance with the laws of Hong Kong, any person who intends to prepare and/or manufacture food for sale for human consumption off the premises in the territory must obtain a Food Factory License issued by the Licensing Authority before commencement of such business.

There are numerous food preparation and manufacturing trades in Hong Kong which need to be covered by a Food Factory License. The more common ones are listed below:

1. preparing food or drinks canned, bottled or packaged in other materials;
2. preparing soy, pickles or sauces (including gourmet powder and sodium glutamate);
3. preserving food, including dried and preserved meat, smoked ham, sausages, lo mei and leung gwo (preserved fruits);
4. operating a take-away food shop or providing catering service etc;
5. roasting meat or poultry;
6. making confections;
7. making bean curd, bean curd whey (soya bean juice), dehydrated bean curd whey, fermented bean curd and fermented taro curd (nam yue) etc;
8. making noodles, rice noodles, vermicelli, macaroni, spaghetti and bean threads etc;
9. manufacturing light refreshments (such as peanuts, shrimp slices, crisps) and
10. puddings;
11. manufacturing gluten and products from gluten such as vegetarian lo mei;
12. processing food, such as manufacturing fish balls, shrimp balls, meat balls and frying pig skin etc; and
13. manufacturing distilled water/bottling water.