The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) promulgated the “Categories and Scales of Food Enterprises Subject to Compulsory Registration and Dates of Implementation” on October 16, 2014. Edible oils and fats manufacturers and processors which have made factory registration, and edible oils and fats importers which have made factory registration, business registration, and company registration should complete the compulsory food enterprise registration before October 31, 2014. Other manufacturers, processors, caterers, importers, and sellers with factory registration, business registration, or company registration should complete the compulsory food enterprise registration before December 31, 2014. 

For the sake of accurately mastering the information about food enterprises, enhancing the efficiency of food sanitation management, protecting food sanitation, safety and health for the people, the MOHW promulgated the Regulations for Compulsory Registration of Food Enterprises on December 3, 2013, and announced on April 24, 2014 that enterprises relating to food additives were the first to be registered. Food enterprises that are required to complete registration but fail to do so before deadlines and fail to make improvement even after being warned will be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$3 million pursuant to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the MOHW has been organizing business briefings to communicate with enterprises and exchange opinions with them, in the hope that enterprises will comply with the government policy for detailed registration of different categories of food businesses. Also, toll-free enquiry hotlines (enquiry about the registration system: 0800-588-106; enquiry about system operation: 0809-080-209) are established. Moreover, 27 seed instructors for the registration information system were trained to start providing assistance to food enterprises for completing the registration on the registration platform (http://fadenbook.fda.gov.tw) at various County/City Public Health Bureaus on October 1, in order to facilitate Taiwan’s food enterprises to comply with the government policy. The FDA also produced pamphlets advising food enterprises on the way to make the registration; the relevant associations were requested to inform their members, and relevant ministries and departments such as the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of The Interior, Ministry of Education, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and Council of Agriculture were also asked to help with the publicity. Apart from shooting publicity video to assist food enterprises in making the registration, the FDA has added the “Food Enterprise Registration” section (http://www.fda.gov.tw/TC/siteList.aspx?sid=3867) on its website to provide a link to the registration platform and relevant publicity information for food enterprises’ and citizens’ reference. 

To strengthen the control over quality of food sanitation and safety, countries around the world have successively developed a system for mastering basic information about food enterprises. The compulsory registration of food enterprises system in Taiwan is not only an unprecedented undertaking, but also a step to conform with the international trend. It will become a threshold for enterprises engaging in the food industry: operation may only start after completing the registration and obtaining the registration number. For citizens’ easy identification of food enterprises’ completion of registration and acquisition of registration number, the FDA also designed a template for the registration number printout (see attachment), listing the food enterprise’s name and registration number. Food enterprises are encouraged to print it by themselves, and post it up in their business venues. In this way, citizens will be able to see that food enterprises are complying with the government policy and are determined to uphold food safety. For details of the announcement, please visit FDA’s website (www.fda.gov.tw) and look for FDA Announcements under “News”.