As the eating habits of Taiwanese people have changed, there is a growing demand for flour among consumers. Due to the nutrient and physical characteristics of some flour products, microorganisms are likely to breed during the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and selling processes. Proper sanitation management during the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and selling processes is thus greatly beneficial to the quality, hygiene, and safety of products. On July 10, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, announced a draft of the Guidelines on Good Hygienic Practices for the Flour Industry and informed the relevant food associations of a 14-day comment period via formal letters to collect opinions from every sector. 

As Article 8 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation prescribes, the personnel, operation sites, sanitation management of facilities, and quality assurance system in the food industry shall meet the regulations on good hygienic practice for foods. The announced draft of the Guidelines on Good Hygienic Practices for the Flour Industry further includes raw noodles, cooked noodles, and dry noodle products and provides proper standards for the sanitary management of processes that may easily cause problems or contamination, from the use and mixing of ingredients and sanitation management for general production processes to sanitation management for particular types of noodle products. Relevant foodstuff businesses are recommended to refer to the guidelines to strengthen hygiene management for their flour products in addition to meeting the Good Hygienic Practices Standards for Foods. 

The comment period for this draft ends on July 24, 2014. For detailed information, please check FDA Announcements under the News section in the Chinese version of the FDA’s website (www.fda.gov.tw).