Food Safety Meeting Becomes a Formality; Scholar Urges Creation of a Food Safety and Inspection Agency for Unified Management

With food problems emerging one after another this year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare today once again convened a "National Food Safety Meeting," following the 2011 plasticizer incident. Kang Chao-chou, former Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare (formerly the Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis under the Department of Health), believes that food management in Taiwan, China is scattered between the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and that Taiwan, China should follow the example of other countries by establishing a "Food Safety and Inspection Agency" to manage the entire chain from farm to table under a single authority. However, Chang Shu-hsien, Director-General of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture, believes that large-scale institutional change is not easy, and that the level of the food safety report should first be raised, with integration and division of labor carried out under the existing system.

Experts Recommend Establishing a "Food Safety and Inspection Agency" for Single-Authority Management

Food jurisdiction in Taiwan, China is scattered across many agencies. The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture is responsible for veterinary drugs and pesticides, the Department of Animal Industry manages feed, the Fisheries Agency handles aquatic products, and the Agriculture and Food Agency is responsible for rice. The Ministry of Health and Welfare oversees labeling for products being put on and taken off shelves, food additives, raw materials, factories and so on, while the Environmental Protection Administration regulates certain toxic chemical substances, and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification also involves the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Some operations overlap and are inefficient.

Kang Chao-chou, former Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration (formerly the Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis), said that he had studied the management systems of various countries and found that only the United States and Japan combine food and drug regulation under one authority, but both countries have permanent food safety-related units, while the European Union has no more than two agencies in charge. Germany, the United Kingdom and France combine agricultural products and food, and Taiwan, China should follow the example of European countries by establishing a "Food Safety and Inspection Agency" to merge the related operations.

He gave an example: at present, when raw materials are imported, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine is responsible for quarantine while the Food and Drug Administration conducts inspections, effectively meaning two sets of manpower. If organizational restructuring is carried out in the future and a single-authority management unit from farm to table is established, it would not only streamline manpower and improve efficiency, but also eliminate the need to spend time on cross-ministerial coordination when food problems arise.

Experts from various fields also mentioned at the pre-meeting that the current Executive Yuan Food and Drug Safety Report mostly discusses implementation details and overlaps with the manpower of the original ministries, so it cannot fully produce results. A permanent Food Safety Committee should be established at the Executive Yuan level.

However, Chang Shu-hsien believes that large-scale institutional reform is not easy. At present, the food safety report already brings together the Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Environmental Protection Administration, and its level should be raised so that food information from all ministries can be integrated under the existing system and long-term planning can be made.

Former Department of Health Official Criticizes Lack of Political Appointees Willing to Resign and Take Responsibility in Food Safety Incidents

The Ministry of Health and Welfare convened a food safety meeting for the second time in more than two years. In addition to government, industry and academia, many members of the public concerned about the food industry attended, and nearly 500 people packed the conference room of the College of Public Health at National Taiwan University. In his opening remarks, President Ma Ying-jeou said that to defend food safety, in addition to changing the management system, fines should be greatly increased by analogy with drunk driving. "After strict investigation and heavy penalties, the number of drunk-driving deaths this year fell by 35%."

But no sooner had Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Jiang Yi-huah of the Executive Yuan left than Lee Chih-heng, former Director-General of the Bureau of Controlled Drugs under the Department of Health and current Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Kaohsiung Medical University, fired off criticism, sharply condemning the food safety meeting as unable to improve food safety. When he served as a technical supervisor at the Department of Health in 2006, he had already put forward suggestions for improving food safety, including single-authority management measures. "What the government lacks is swift and decisive action. It should implement the meeting's conclusions as soon as possible, not just keep holding meetings."

He said bluntly that in Chiang Ching-kuo's era, Education Minister Chiang Yen-shih stepped down over the Hualien shipwreck incident. "Which political appointee today has that kind of backbone?" This implicitly referred to the fact that no one took responsibility for food safety incidents and won enthusiastic applause from the whole room.

Food and Drug Administration Pledges to Complete Inspections of Raw Materials for 13 Product Categories Including Soy Sauce and Vegetable and Fruit Juice Within One Year

The Food and Drug Administration announced today that within one year it will inspect 13 priority food categories: fresh milk, vegetable and fruit juice, edible oil, tea, honey, holiday foods, rice, eggs, bread, group-buying gourmet foods, organic products, and vegetarian products adulterated with meat.

Chiang Yu-mei, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration, said that in addition to market sampling, inspectors will go directly to production factories to trace raw materials and manufacturing processes, cutting off abuses at the source, with soy sauce and vegetable and fruit juice given priority for now.

In addition, to avoid the media misleading consumers and causing food safety panic, Sun Lu-hsi, Professor Emeritus at the Graduate Institute of Food Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, suggested that the government or food-related associations should proactively recommend a list of experts for the media to consult, and that experts should also bravely speak out.