Changhua Food Safety Initiative Upgraded: Crackdown on Illegal Animal and Crop Remedies and Unsafe School Food
To scrub away Changhua County's negative image of being associated with tainted food, and to fulfill the food safety policy pledges made during the election campaign, Changhua County's new magistrate Wei Ming-ku held a press conference yesterday to announce the launch of the "Changhua County Food Safety Action Year", rolling out ten major food safety action plans that will use strategies such as food chain inspections, preventive control at the source, and encouraging whistleblowers to report violations, in order to keep cracking down on tainted food, rebuild order in the food industry, and restore consumer confidence.
Yeh Yen-po, planner of the food safety action plan and director of the Changhua County Public Health Bureau, said that after a string of tainted food incidents - plasticizers, toxic starch, inferior oil, and carcinogenic dried tofu - were swept away in joint operations by prosecutors, police, and investigators, the next phase will focus on stepping up crackdowns on underground pesticide dealers, veterinary drugs sold without prescriptions, and counterfeit or inferior veterinary drugs, while school tainted food will be handled through county-wide coordinated delisting, using consumer power to boycott tainted food.
Agricultural production is the most upstream link in the food supply chain; crack down hard on counterfeit and inferior pesticides and on unlicensed livestock-and-crop drug dealers
Note: Contents of the ten major food safety action plans of Changhua County
1. Separate control of chemical raw materials and food additives
Comprehensive tracing of the sources and flows of food additives. (Inspection scheduled to be completed within one year)
Hidden-figure clause: Step up crackdowns on unregistered sellers of chemical raw materials, sellers of toxic chemical substances, and food additive businesses.
2. Step up crackdowns on illegal pesticide sales and veterinary drug use
Joint operations with prosecutors, police, and investigators to step up crackdowns on underground pesticides, veterinary drugs sold without prescriptions, and counterfeit veterinary drugs.
3. Safe, non-toxic school lunch ingredients, locally produced and locally sold
Locally produced and locally sold ingredients to be included in school lunch contracts.
Coordinated delisting of school tainted food and dual re-inspection control before relisting.
4. Implement the agricultural product production traceability system and build a premium Changhua fruit and vegetable brand
5. Revise the Changhua County Food Safety Self-Governance Ordinance
Severe penalties for food of unknown origin to be written into law.
Separate control of chemical raw materials and food additives to be written into law.
6. Raise whistleblower rewards and launch a mechanism for public oversight
Whistleblower rewards for major food safety cases, up to 50% depending on the circumstances.
Add whistleblower rewards for unregistered sellers of chemical raw materials with a high risk of flowing into food, and whistleblower rewards for illegal pesticides and veterinary drugs, up to 50% depending on the circumstances.
7. Make food information open and transparent, and build a food data network platform
Promote registration of food businesses.
Implement registration of school lunch ingredients and make menus transparent.
8. Strengthen food chain inspections and traceability management at the food-use end
Give priority to traceability of school lunch ingredients and food chain inspection management.
9. Join forces with prosecutors, police, and investigators to establish a platform for cracking down on tainted food
10. Expand food inspection manpower and boost food testing capacity
Expand the quality and quantity of professional food inspection and testing manpower.
Improve testing quality and efficiency, and expand commissioned testing by private accredited laboratories.