Food Safety Act passes first reading: separate factory licenses for food and feed, food traceability, I-Mei clause, higher fines
From plasticizers and toxic starch to the Datong adulterated garbage oil and, more recently, the inferior lard incident, food safety problems in Taiwan, China, have kept erupting. The Food and Drug Administration has been inspecting major oil manufacturers in Taiwan, China one after another. At the same time, the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee has also been reviewing the "Draft Amendments to Certain Articles of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation." The preliminary review passed, and through measures such as segregated management and heavier penalties, the aim is to curb unscrupulous businesses. The Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee worked late into the night at the Legislative Yuan for three consecutive days, hoping to complete the third reading before Ting Hsin is convicted.
After the eighth article-by-article review, at 11:30 p.m. on the 16th, the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee passed 8 articles in the preliminary review at the Legislative Yuan, of which 7 were amendments and 1 was the Executive Yuan version. The preliminary review incorporated "electronic invoices" into law in order to establish a food traceability or tracking system; in addition, the "separate plants, separate licenses" clause requires that food factories engaged in food and food additives should be established separately and may not engage in the manufacture, processing or blending of non-food items at the same plant site or factory building. The amendment content of the remaining 19 articles was retained and sent to cross-party negotiations.
Food and non-food manufacturing require separate plants and separate licenses
In the past, most major food manufacturers in Taiwan, China also operated feed businesses, creating loopholes in which materials and manufacturing processes could be confused, and feed, industrial chemical raw materials and food were not easy to clearly separate. After three consecutive days and two nights of working late, the two parties reached consensus on the "separate plants, separate licenses" management of food manufacturing plants and non-food manufacturing. Article 10, the "separate plants, separate licenses" clause, requires that food plants be established separately and may not simultaneously manufacture, process or blend non-edible items at the same plant site or factory building, so as to prevent incidents in which garbage oil, feed oil, industrial oil and the like are mixed into food from happening again.
Adding the "I-Mei clause": listed or OTC companies, or when required by the government, must set up laboratories
According to the amended Article 7 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, with the spirit of self-management by operators, it provides that in the future food businesses, or other related businesses, must all formulate food safety monitoring plans. As long as they are listed, traded on the OTC market, or belong to specific categories or scales announced by the central competent authority, they must set up laboratories and independently conduct inspections of the raw materials, semi-finished products or finished products of their products.
"Electronic invoices" written into law to establish a food tracking system
In addition, in order to establish a food traceback and tracking system, the amendment to Article 9 incorporates "electronic invoices" into law. As long as they are food businesses or businesses in industry categories or of scales announced by the central competent authority, they are responsible for filing reports electronically, thereby establishing a tracking and traceability system. Jiang Yumei, Acting Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that Premier Jiang Yi-huah of the Executive Yuan has already instructed that the Ministry of Economic Affairs will assist the Ministry of Health and Welfare and other relevant units in announcing and establishing this system in stages.
Raising fines for unscrupulous manufacturers to a maximum of NT$200 million
During the meeting, the two parties reached a certain consensus that major circumstances posing a risk to human health should be punished with heavy penalties. However, the draft amendment to Article 49 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation remained deadlocked at the meeting because such illegal acts may simultaneously violate criminal penalties and administrative penalties, but under the principle of "no double punishment for one offense," criminal penalties are applied first, leading to the revocation of high administrative fines.
Taking last year's Datong oil incident as an example, although Article 44, Paragraph 2 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation was cited, and if the benefits obtained exceed the statutory fine, and the central competent authority determines that the circumstances are major, a penalty may be imposed within the scope of the benefits obtained. However, because Article 26, Paragraph 1 of the current Administrative Penalty Act provides that if an act simultaneously violates criminal law and violates an obligation under administrative law, it must be punished in accordance with criminal law.
Under this principle of "no double punishment for one offense," because criminal law is applied first, when the Intellectual Property Court ruled on July 24, it found that Kao Chen-li had committed the crimes of "false labeling of goods" and "fraudulent acquisition of property" under the Criminal Code of the Republic of China, and had also violated the Act Governing Food Sanitation. The sentences were combined and executed as 12 years of fixed-term imprisonment; Datong was only fined NT$38 million, and the judgment became final.
In response, both parties intend in this amendment of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation to increase the deterrent effect against unscrupulous manufacturers. Therefore, in the preliminarily passed Article 44, in order to effectively recover the benefits obtained from the improper conduct of unscrupulous businesses, in the future, as long as food or food additives manufactured, processed, blended, packaged, transported, stored, sold, imported or exported by a business are spoiled, rotten, contaminated with pathogenic organisms, or are determined through epidemiological investigation to be the cause of food poisoning; or if food utensils, food containers or packaging, or food cleaning agents manufactured, sold, imported, exported or used by a business are toxic, likely to produce adverse chemical reactions, sufficient to endanger health, or otherwise pose a risk to health after risk assessment, the current fine of NT$60,000 to NT$50 million will be raised to no more than NT$200 million.
As for the draft amendment to Article 49, apart from the NT$200 million fine, how, after the amendment, to substantially increase penalties for unscrupulous major manufacturers such as Ting Hsin that violate the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation by adulterating or counterfeiting, while also avoiding the provisions of Article 26 of the Administrative Penalty Act and allowing high fines in addition to heavier penalties, there is still no conclusion. In the end, the retained amendment was sent to cross-party negotiations.