Taiwan GAP steps aside: 1,200 restaurants embrace traceable ingredients, campus schoolchildren's nutritious lunch safety situation
On the 15th, the Northern Regional Branch of the Agriculture and Food Agency held a promotional event at the "Taipei Hope Plaza" farmers' market. Hu Chung-yi, Director-General of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said that agricultural products bearing the Traceable Agricultural Products (TAP) label are not only about safe pesticide use, but also serve as a guarantee for locally produced, environmentally friendly agricultural products. As long as you look for TAP, you don't have to worry about buying foreign goods. The Agriculture and Food Agency has also matched 1,200 restaurants as traceable restaurants, allowing people who eat out to enjoy safe cuisine. However, there are still regional differences in getting labeled ingredients into campuses, and operators look forward to assistance from local governments and regulations. On the 15th and 16th, the Northern Regional Branch set up a dedicated zone for traceable agricultural products at Taipei Hope Plaza. As long as you buy products and collect 3 traceable agricultural product labels, you can get 1 bottle of traceable soybean milk, while supplies last.
Hu Chung-yi said that the five-ring food safety policy launched by the Executive Yuan in ROC year 105 includes five aspects: "source control," "rebuilding production management," "strengthening inspection," "increasing liability for malicious and unscrupulous manufacturers," and "public supervision of food safety." The transformation of GAP into the Traceable Agricultural Products label is an important achievement under this policy. Based on Taiwan Good Agricultural Practice and verified by third-party certification bodies, labels are printed in fixed quantities and the flow of agricultural products is tracked. If labels are printed without authorization or fail to meet regulations, both producers and verification agencies will be penalized, which can avoid the problems caused by the uncontrolled number of GAP labels in the past. In addition, consumers can check serial numbers on the website platform and scan two-dimensional barcodes to understand the production and marketing process, achieving the goal of public supervision of food safety.
At present, the area of domestic traceable agricultural products is about 17,000 hectares. This year, the Council of Agriculture has introduced multiple policy subsidies: a special project for the traceability transition period for farmers with GAP labels, environmental payments and verification fee subsidies for those who obtain the Traceable Agricultural Products label, and more. It is expected to invest 1 billion to help producers transition. Hu Chung-yi is confident that the area can reach 30,000 hectares by the end of the year and 60,000 hectares after 4 years. The Agriculture and Food Agency has also matched 110 catering groups and 1,200 restaurants to use traceable agricultural products as traceable restaurants, so that people who eat out can also enjoy safe domestically produced ingredients.
In ROC year 106, the Council of Agriculture promoted labeled ingredients into campus nutritious lunches. After the GAP label was discontinued on the 15th, group meal operators could switch to purchasing organic agricultural product labels, CAS Taiwan Excellent Agricultural Products, TAP agricultural products, and ingredients with Taiwan agricultural production traceability barcodes (three labels and one Q). Chen Ming-hsin, Chairman of the Taipei City Meal Box Food Commercial Association, said that purchasing labeled ingredients does cost more for group meal operators, but because the labels provide oversight, it also reduces operators' management risks. "We also don't want a dish to be half cooked and then be found to have pesticide residue problems." However, county and city governments across the country place different levels of importance on nutritious lunches, resulting in different tender prices at schools of different levels, which also affects operators' purchasing of labeled ingredients. "Food safety has a price," Chen Ming-hsin said. Taking Taipei City as an example, the price per meal is 55 yuan to 60 yuan, but in central and southern Taiwan it may be only 20 or 30 yuan. As far as he understands, the proportion of labeled ingredients used in Taipei City nutritious lunches is as high as 60%, so the regional differences in getting labeled ingredients into campuses still await assistance from county and city governments and relevant regulations.
(Photo provided by the Agriculture and Food Agency)
