The Food Safety Office of the Executive Yuan was officially established on the 22nd.

Text/Executive Yuan

Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Li-chun said today (the 20th) that in order to coordinate and plan food safety policy, coordinate central and local authorities of responsibility in preventing and handling major food safety incidents, and promote the establishment of a food cloud to safeguard national health, the Executive Yuan will transform and expand the original Food Safety Promotion Task Force into the "Executive Yuan Food Safety Office," which will be formally established this (10th) month on the 22nd.

Spokesperson Sun pointed out that President Ma Ying-jeou recently convened the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the National Security Council and other relevant units to hold a high-level national security meeting, instructing that the level of food safety management be raised in order to promote cross-ministerial food safety management work. The Executive Yuan then had Minister Without Portfolio Jiang Bing-huang convene relevant units on the 16th of this month to deliberate on matters including the organizational positioning, personnel, funding, office premises and equipment of the Food Safety Office, completing the related preparatory work.

Spokesperson Sun pointed out that the legal basis for the establishment of the Food Safety Office is Article 14 of the "Executive Yuan Organization Act." It is a permanent task force responsible for supervising, coordinating and comprehensively promoting cross-ministerial food management work. Under it are set up business units including the Management and Coordination Group, the Response and Communication Group, the Inspection and Crackdown Group, and the Information Services Group, supervised by a Minister Without Portfolio of the Executive Yuan. At present it is temporarily supervised by Minister Without Portfolio Jiang, who is about to take up the post of Minister of Health and Welfare, and a director and a deputy director are appointed to oversee the related business.

Spokesperson Sun stated that the Food Safety Office will have 20 full-time staff. Its members include personnel within the Executive Yuan's establishment, personnel seconded from agencies related to food safety business (including the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Justice, the Council of Agriculture, etc.) and from incorporated foundations, as well as professionally contracted personnel. Some personnel have already been stationed there starting today (the 20th), and the office is scheduled to be formally established on the 22nd.

Spokesperson Sun stated that when the President chaired the first high-level national security food safety meeting on October 13, he instructed national security units to fully gather food safety early-warning intelligence and uncover sources of illegal cases. On October 16, the National Security Bureau, together with the National Police Agency and the Investigation Bureau, established an "Early Warning Briefing," which within 2 weeks will first compile food safety problem files and tip-off information and proactively provide them to the Executive Yuan's "Food Safety Office" for reference; in cases involving cross-jurisdictional investigation, it will refer them to the "Food Safety Office" to request the prosecutor stationed by the High Prosecutors Office to coordinate the investigation. The briefing will also include members from agencies such as the Coast Guard Administration, the National Immigration Agency and the Military Police Command, so as to integrate and give full play to the capacity for investigating tainted food domestically, at the border, overseas and in maritime areas.