Oyster production and sales traceability false-labeling case found to be substandard through digital traceability; further investigation into hard clams to continue
The first case of forged traceability labels has emerged in the country. A Chiayi oyster farmer with traceability certification added printed stickers without authorization. During an inspection, the Council of Agriculture found that the clams (Meretrix lusoria) packaged by this farmer were also problematic. Next Monday, it will join the Fisheries Agency, local government and certification bodies to confirm whether the farmer affixed false labels to other unverified products.
This case was mainly uncovered when inspectors scanned the QR code on the products and found that the certification body did not match. Further checks on the information platform revealed that the distributor had received more products than there were stickers, which led to the case being cracked. Agricultural officials said that it was because the traceability system is complete that lawbreakers could be caught this time, and they urged consumers not to lose confidence.
Council of Agriculture to continue investigating other illegal acts next Monday
Chiayi oyster farmer Dai Yixian is a traceability-certified farmer with National Taiwan Ocean University, and also assists local clam farmers with packaging, having passed traceability certification with National Chiayi University. Recently, because oysters were in short supply, the farmer used a computer to print labels without authorization. Last week, when inspectors scanned the oyster QR code, they found that the certification body written on the sticker was National Chiayi University, but the mobile page showed National Taiwan Ocean University, and the inconsistency led to the case being uncovered.
Fu Ziyu, section chief of the Council of Agriculture's Planning Division, said that the farmer had passed production traceability certification but illegally added printed labels, which constitutes false labeling and can be fined 3~15 wan. However, if a business operator affixes traceability stickers to unverified products, it violates the "Agricultural Product Production and Certification Management Regulations" and can be fined 20 wan to 100 wan. Next Monday, they will go to the site for inspection.
He said that currently the Council of Agriculture mainly adopts administrative penalties, which are faster, but it will also further investigate whether the operator has any other illegal matters.
Information disclosure is complete, agricultural authorities urge consumers to have confidence
Although the first forgery case has appeared, Li Jianlin, section chief of the Fisheries Section of the Chiayi County Agriculture Department, believes that this does not mean traceability has failed. On the contrary, it is because traceability records every process in detail from the bottom up and is very well established that this case could be traced.
The sticker numbers for traceability are all unique. All production information must be connected to the computer, and the certification body calculates the farm area to determine how many stickers a farmer can print.
In this case, the operator illegally printed without authorization. Inspectors queried the information platform and found that the farmer had duplicate traceability codes, incomplete traceability codes, and codes that could not be queried, and could only print 800 stickers, while the distributor received 1120 products.
Fu Ziyu said that with a system that is well liked, there will always be operators who want to take illegal advantage. The design of the system is to make counterfeiting more costly for operators and increase the chance of being caught. This time the operator's credit is completely ruined, and it will be very difficult to apply again in the future. Traceability information disclosure is relatively complete, so consumers can still trust it.
Li Jianlin also emphasized that most operators are very dedicated. Now, because of food safety crises, more and more people are beginning to examine traceability, so greater care is needed from the start, and the county government will continue to keep watch.