Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has announced the amendment of Regulation for Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, extending the scope of imported products required for systematic inspection to include imported egg products and animal oil products. The new measure came into enforcement on January 1, 2019.

TFDA stated that the food safety management system of the exporting countries which intend to export egg products and animal oil products to Taiwan should be qualified by TFDA’s systematic inspection. Only the products from qualified exported countries and establishments will be accepted by TFDA for import inspection application. All the products that are confirmed to “Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation” and other related regulations are allowed to enter into Taiwan markets. TFDA explained that base on the principle of legitimate expectation, for egg products and animal oil products that there are records of importation before the new measure goes into force, those products may be exempted from systematic inspection measures.

TFDA further stated that Regulation for Systematic Inspection of Imported Food had been announced and came into enforcement on February 11, 2014. Currently, the products including meat products, fishery products, dairy products, egg products, animal oil products and products of bovine origin are subjected to systematic inspection. The exporting country shall apply to TFDA for approval of import of above products. TFDA will conduct the document review and on-site inspection to understand the food safety management system of the exporting country and to conduct the equivalence of the food safety control between the exporting countries and Taiwan. (Related regulations and application procedures could be referred to TFDA website)

Systematic inspection of the imported animal source food is the international common food safety management measure which is adopted by the many countries. Through this control measure, importing countries can implement imported food management and strengthen food safety control of the imported food safety and sanitary.

Source: TFDA (https://www.fda.gov.tw/EN/newsContent.aspx?id=24382)

In order to enhance the efficiency of imported food inspection and provide a more comfortable and convenient environment for services, the Keelung Port Office of the Food and Drug Administration (hereinafter referred to as the “FDA”) will move to Keelung Harbor Service Building on January 2, 2018 to start providing cooperative services together with the Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, Keelung Customs. The opening ceremony will be held in the Great Hall on the fourth floor of the Keelung Customs building at 10 am on January 3, co-hosted by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung and Political Deputy Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong. The Mayor of Keelung City, Lin Yu-chang, elected representatives, and senior politicians will also be invited as guests to attend the ceremony.

These days, our citizens are more concerned about the safety of imported food, and in response, the FDA is also involved in considerable efforts to inspect imported food. However, the space of the original Keelung Port Office has not been sufficient; therefore, the office will be relocated in order to cooperate with the Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, Keelung Customs for the purpose of elevating the safety of imported food. This will also assist the CPT single window to implement the unified integrated import declaration, enhance efficient civil service for customs declaration and inspection, and create a safer and more convenient environment.

After working together, a cooperative platform between the Keelung Port Office and Keelung Customs will be established to shorten the time for connection, as well as lessen the time and manpower required for delivering and returning documents. Therefore, the customs clearance process will be sped up and will become more convenient so that customs brokerage services can manage the customs declaration and inspection of imported food. Furthermore, the “sampling procedure of imported agricultural and fishing products inspection,” which includes food and drug in cargo clearance, tourist luggage, and postal parcels, will be launched as a trial operation. The sampling will be taken by customs with one-time open package inspection in order to avoid repeated package opening and inspection and save time and costs. After all, we expect to protect the “food and drug safety” of our citizens.

source: (https://www.fda.gov.tw/EN/newsContent.aspx?id=22677)

In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration developed the protocol for “Method for the determination of lutein and zeaxanthin in capsules" and initiated a special survey on the content of Lutein in commercially available lutein products.

The results showed that six products contained lutein content below the marked content. In particular, a Children’s chewable lutein tablet made by “Shih-Hung Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd" stood out with less than 80% of the labeling value of the product. Therefore, an official administrative audit was ordered and found that the company in question was suspected of replacing the original expiry date of products with a later date before repackaging them to be sold to customers again.This audit result was sent to the Yunlin District Prosecutors Office and a criminal investigation was immediately opened.

On May 11, 2016, Yunlin Prosecutor’s Office, the Police, the Investigation Bureau, Yunlin Health Bureau and Food and Drug Administration launched a joint investigation, interviewing the importers, manufacturers, distributors and subcontractors involved with the production of the concerned product and searched these operators’ offices and homes for evidence.

In this joint investigation, “Shih-Hung Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd" was found to have tampered with the lot number and expiry date of a total of 65 products. As a result, 25 million pills in the inventory were seized and a recall of products in the distribution and retail channels were ordered.

On July 12, 2016, Yunlin District Prosecutors Office officially indicted the relevant personnel for the violation of the Act Governing Food Sanitation and Fraud and seized the proceeds of illegal activities.

source: TFDA (https://www.fda.gov.tw/EN/newsContent.aspx?id=22635)