To prevent a repeat of the Shanshui Rice incident, the Agriculture and Food Agency has increased the penalty to 3 million
Shanshui Rice has violated regulations 18 times in the past two years, and this time it was again caught selling Vietnamese rice passed off as Taiwan rice. The Agriculture and Food Agency announced the day before yesterday a fine of 200,000 yuan. But the public generally believes that grain traders use cheap, inferior imported rice and pass it off as Taiwan rice, reaping exorbitant profits, and a fine of 200,000 yuan is no more than a slap on the wrist for the operator. The Agriculture and Food Agency announced last night that it will amend the <Food Administration Act>, raising the maximum fine from 200,000 to 3 million yuan.
In addition, for operators who deliberately deceive, the one-month grace period for improvement will no longer be given, and fines will be imposed directly. If the violations affect people's livelihoods, the grain trader's registration may even be revoked directly.
The current <Food Labeling Regulations> stipulate that operators with labeling that does not conform must take the products off the shelves and improve them within one month. Those who fail to improve are fined 40,000, 120,000, and 200,000 yuan in cumulative order, and if they fail to improve after three consecutive fines, their grain trader license is revoked.
But Shanshui Rice has violated regulations 18 times over the past two years, each time improving within one month, and only the day before yesterday was it fined for the first time. The Agriculture and Food Agency uncovers about 120 cases of labeling violations each year, and on average only 20 cases are fined, leading outsiders to question whether the Agriculture and Food Agency is not doing its duty well enough.
The Agriculture and Food Agency announced yesterday that it will amend the "Directions for Discretionary Handling of Cases Violating the Food Administration Act," so that for operators who deliberately deceive or seriously violate regulations, no improvement period will be given and fines will be imposed directly. It will amend the <Food Administration Act>, following the <Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation>, to raise the fine amount from the current 200,000 to 3 million yuan, with fines that can be imposed consecutively, and if a major violation is ruled to affect people's livelihoods, the grain trader license will be revoked directly.
Lee Tsang-lang, Director-General of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said that the 18 past violations by Shanshui Rice were mostly minor matters such as false labeling, but this time "in packaged rice labeled as 100% produced in Taiwan, there was not even a single grain of Taiwan rice." Calling this a labeling error is too much of an exaggeration; Shanshui Rice has already reached the level of deliberate deception. However, under current regulations it can only be fined 200,000 yuan, so in order to curb unscrupulous manufacturers, it has taken major action to amend the law.
