General Inspection on Country-of-Origin Labeling on Beef Products to Protect Consumer’s Right of Choice
2012/10/30
The Department of Health (DOH) started its “Strengthened Inspection on the Mandatory Labeling Program” today (September 12, 2012) and the Public Health Bureau of each County and City will launch a 2-month-long thorough inspection on pre-packaged food, bulk food and those establishments that directly supply food, in order to put the labeling of beef materials with the country of origin into practice. The Minister of DOH, Mr. Chiu Wen-ta, called for a meeting this morning between the Director-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Mr. Kang Jaw-jou, and his colleagues and the Health Bureau and Consumer Ombudsman’s officers of Taipei City Government. They went to Nanmen Market, to restaurants and megastores to inspect how the labeling of beef products with their country of origin had been executed. Through this one-hour inspection, businesses were all found to have labeled their products appropriately.
In order to implement the regulation on Mandatory Labeling effectively and provide consumers with correct information, FDA and the County/City Public Health Bureaus are going to conduct a 3-stage thorough inspection on the announced industry categories (pre-packaged food, bulk food, and establishments that directly supply food) from the date when the applicable regulations were put into effect. This “Strengthened Inspection on the Mandatory Labeling Program” focuses on “ensuring that the country of origin is clearly labeled” and “conducting on-the-spot instant counseling and rectification”. Business proprietors will be asked to provide relevant supporting evidence to verify the labeled country of origin when necessary (e.g., photocopy of importation permit notification for food and relevant products, slaughter certificate for domestic cattle, name of the supplier, certificate for the source of meat, transaction certificate, photocopy of delivery list, etc.)
Pursuant to the September 6 announcement by DOH, it is explicitly stipulated that any food containing beef or edible parts of cattle or establishments selling such food have to clearly label the “country of origin of the food ingredients” so that it can be easily identified by consumers. If the label is not made by businesses in accordance with the regulations, they are liable to a fine between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 pursuant to Articles 17 and 17-1 of the “Act Governing Food Sanitation”. In case of inaccurate labeling of the information concerning the country of origin, they may be fined between NT$40,000 and NT$200,000 pursuant to Article 19 of the “Act Governing Food Sanitation”.
FDA supervises and monitors the inspection operations, compiles every day the results reported by each County/City Public Health Bureau, gets a clear image of how businesses are putting Mandatory Labeling into practice and regularly updates the website with new posts in order to achieve information transparency and reassure citizens. In addition, announcements and a FAQ section related to the labeling of beef with its country of origin can be found by citizens and businesses on the website or they can call the enquiry hotline at 02-2787-8200.
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