To promote the food safety management and build the consumers confidence, the government proposed the “Five-point Food Safety Policy” in June, 2016. It has been planning and implementing coordinately by the Office of Food Safety, Executive Yuan with Council of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Education. So far the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare (hereinafter referred to as the “TFDA”) has achieved noticeable results (see the Appendix). The results include the harmonization of the domestic statutory standards and assessment criteria with international counterparts, expanded scope of the key food industries on the government’s watch list, increased compliance rate of market food products at random sampling tests, severe penalties to unscrupulous businesses, and the successful implementation of the whistleblowing protection clause.

 “Five-point Food Safety Policy,” which connects five focuses from farm to table, covers the “Strengthen source control management,” “Re-establish the food production-management system,” “Strengthen government market inspection capabilities,” “Increase liability for producers and vendors,” and the “Encourage and create oversight platforms”. The implementation objectives of each policy are described below:

1. Strengthen source control management:

The TFDA works to harmonize the regulations and standards and to support the research and development of testing technologies for risk substances in food. Big data analyses are made using a cloud food management system.

2. Re-establish the food production-management system:

The TFDA expands the scope of supervision over a wide array of food businesses and demands the key industries to establish the self-regulatory system, including the food safety monitoring plan, self-testing, and food traceability system, as well as introduction of the food-related professional management mechanism, thereby enabling business owners to enhance their self-regulatory and management systems.

3. Strengthen government inspection capabilities:

The inspection on food items that have a high non-compliance rate, high risk or attract intense consumers attention are performed with increased frequency and intensity based on the principle of “yearly and monthly risk management”. The purpose is to inhibit the bad products enter into the market.

4. Increase liability for producers and vendors:

Laws and regulations are amended to ensure the unscrupulous businesses receive severe penalties. The consolidation of the resources from the prosecution, police and judicial system bolsters the capacity of the public sector to engage in investigations previously limited by the constraints on the executive power of investigation, thereby exposing and destroying unethical practice.

5. Encourage and create oversight platforms:

With the creation of monitoring platforms and facilitation of information disclosure, the TFDA encourages public participation in the general food safety monitoring. The amount of the reward for reporting offences is raised to motivate the civil society to monitor and report unscrupulous practices.

The government, committed to the universal food safety management, implements the “Five-point Food Safety Policy”. Industry self-regulation, government management and civil participation are three major forces behind the effective implementation of the policy to complete the farm-to-table management process as well as to build up a strong and credible food safety system in which the consumers may purchase with confidence.