萬國法律事務所

On 18 November 2014 Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan passed a resolution on major amendments to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (“Act”) as a response to the numerous food safety incidents that have arisen in recent years. 

Under the Act, the administrative fines imposed on any enterprise that 1) adds substances that are toxic or harmful to human health to food or food additives, 2) adulterates or counterfeits food or food additives, 3) uses unapproved food additives, or 4) uses toxic food utensils, food containers or food packaging, are increased to a range from NT$ 60,000 to NT$ 200,000,000. 

In respect of criminal liability, any person who commits any of aforementioned actions shall be imprisoned for no more than seven years, and a fine of not more than NT$ 80,000,000 may be imposed. Furthermore, for serious violations of certain provisions under the Act which give rise to concerns of endangering human health, violators shall be imprisoned for not more than seven years and a fine of not more than NT$ 80,000,000 may be imposed; where the violation endangers human health, violators shall be imprisoned for between one year to seven years, and a fine of no more than NT$ 100,000,000 may be imposed. If a violation results in any death, the violators shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or be imprisoned for not less than seven years and a fine of not less than NT$ 200,000,000 may be imposed; if a violation results in any severe injury, the violators shall be imprisoned for between three years to ten years and a fine of not less than NT$ 150,000,000 may be imposed. If the representative of a juristic person, or the agent, employee, or other worker of a juristic person commits any of the crimes under the Act, in addition to the natural person, the juristic persons shall be fined an amount ten times the amount of the normal relevant fine. 

Also, the proceeds of criminal acts, regardless of which party possesses the same, including a third party, may be subject to confiscation if the authorities have reasonable cause to believe that the proceeds were transferred from the violator. 

Other material amendments to the Act include the following: 

- Listed, over-the-counter food businesses, and those food businesses meeting the criteria for the category and scale as announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (“MOHW”) must establish laboratories for food self-monitored testing. 

- Those food businesses that meet the criteria for category and scale as announced by the MOHW must establish tracking or tracing systems for the supply sources and flow of their product materials and for finished and semi-finished products. The MOHW must also, based on the respective necessity for food tracing, announce in phases the mandatory usage of electronic invoices by the aforementioned food businesses so as to ensure the accuracy of the food tracing or tracking systems. 

- Any food factory or food additives factory, other than pharmaceutical manufacturers that meet the Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice Regulations, which concurrently engage in the manufacture of food, must be established separately. No manufacturing, processing, or blending of non-food products may be conducted at the same site or in said factory. Food businesses that import compound food additives, exclusive of flavoring agents, must prepare at hand for the authorities’ check, the product ingredients report of the products’ countries of origin, and the official proof of the identity of the country from which the product was exported.