Amended Act Governing Food Safety Passed Third Reading Before Year-End, Somewhat Mending the Food Safety Net
The new version of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation passed its third reading on January 28, and coincidentally, that same day forty years earlier was the promulgation date of the Act Governing Food Sanitation. The new act adds the two words "Safety" and Article 3 also provides special definitions for items such as "genetically modified" organisms; such additions in fact reflect the intricate and complex causes of today's dietary risks, including: whether crops contain excessive chemical fertilizers and pesticides, whether meat products contain banned drugs, whether they are genetically modified foods, and how many food additives they contain... and so on.
At the end of last year, civil groups jointly pushed for amendment of the Act Governing Food Sanitation; the new act's name adds the two words "Safety," and it requires the restoration of the inspection and registration system for compound food additives, as well as measures such as transparent labeling of genetically modified foods, in order to genuinely protect the dietary rights of all citizens. After several twists and turns, the new version of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation passed its third reading, and the management of genetically modified food raw materials was written into law for the first time. However, regrettably, the inspection and registration system for compound food additives was not amended together this time because the Food and Drug Administration insisted it would create trade barriers.
On the eve of the Legislative Yuan's extraordinary session to review the Act Governing Food Sanitation, it was rumored that the ruling party would veto the civil-society version on which consensus had already been reached and instead support the Executive Yuan version. For this reason, the Taichung branch of the Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation wrote to the media, calling on ruling-party lawmakers not to sacrifice national health for commercial interests, to support the civil-society version of the Act Governing Food Sanitation, and to let everyone have a good New Year! The Taipei headquarters also invited experts and scholars to hold a press conference titled "Protect Everyone's Health, Not One Article of the Act Governing Food Sanitation Can Be Missing," calling on the government to: (1) require inspection and registration of compound food additives and do a good job of source management for food safety, rather than merely raising penalties to patch a broken net; (2) make the labeling of genetically modified foods transparent and establish a tracking and tracing system to protect the public's right to know; (3) complete the amendment as soon as possible, not ignore public opinion, because national health cannot wait.
At the press conference, Yen Tsung-hai, a nephrologist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, said that in Taiwan more and more patients without any family history are undergoing dialysis or suffering from cancer for unknown reasons, which may be related to too many food additives in daily life. Dr. Lin Chung-ying of the Clinical Toxicology Laboratory also added that many food additive manufacturers have no factory registration, and some even sell food additives alongside chemical raw materials, making it highly possible for industrial chemical raw materials to be mixed into food manufacturing processes. Tan Tun-tzu, the widow of Dr. Lin Jie-liang, said: "The devil is hidden in the compound formula, and the government should use public authority to make the devil show itself." Chang Ming-chun, deputy director of the Taichung branch, also called at the press conference for the Ministry of Health and Welfare not to put manufacturers' interests ahead of national health, and for lawmakers who speak for the people to work together to pass the food sanitation act the public wants, giving everyone a big New Year gift!
Although the new act failed to follow public opinion and restore the inspection and registration system for compound food additives, "genetically modified food raw materials" were written into law for the first time, and Kuo Hua-jen, a professor in the Department of Agronomy at National Taiwan University who has long followed GMO issues, also said: "This is a small justice that came late." In the new act, Article 3 adds a definition of "genetically modified," and Articles 21, 22 and 24 separately regulate the use and labeling of food raw materials, requiring that GM raw materials undergo inspection and registration and be issued a permit before they can be used as food raw materials, and that the competent authority must also establish a tracking and tracing system. Among the countries in the world that consume GM foods, Taiwan is a low-level labeling country; there is still room for effort in the management of GM foods at present, but at least it is an improvement over the past.
During this amendment, the Ministry of Health and Welfare once used trade barriers as a pretext, unwilling to restore inspection and registration for compound food additives. We believe that, standing on the side of the public, it is not excessive to demand that the government provide an absolute guarantee of dietary safety; the government's selective acceptance of the public's expectations and its deliberate discussion of economic development on the same level as national health show that a mindset of valuing the economy and neglecting people's livelihood has not changed, and the government's administrative management truly still needs to be closer to the public's feelings.
(Lin Fang-ju / Issues Specialist, Taichung Branch)