President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of July 3 attended a symposium held in Hsinchu to discuss how to improve food safety. Manufacturers that have adopted good manufacturing practices (GMP) attended the forum. Accompanied by Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥), President Ma listened to briefings presented by the Food Industry Research and Development Institute and the Taiwan Food GMP Development Association, and then heard opinions and suggestions of food manufacturers on food safety topics.
In remarks to the gathering, President Ma stated that even though the Department of Health has handled the recent illegal food additives case in a rapid and transparent manner, the issue has caused great public concern as to the safety of Taiwan's food. In addition, the incident has also dealt a considerable blow to local food manufacturers who are working to develop markets in Southeast Asia and mainland China. The president called on forum participants to put forward solutions to restore confidence among consumers in locally made food products, as well as to determine the reasons for the plasticizer incident and figure out how to nip any future such incidents in the bud.
During the discussions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Department of Health, and the Executive Yuan's Consumer Protection Commission addressed the concerns of food manufacturers with regard to the management of the sources of food additives, the registration and classification of food suppliers, and self-regulation by companies in the food industry.
At the conclusion of the discussions, President Ma, in response to concerns among food manufacturers about the labeling of food additives, a food registration system, and how to strengthen the cross-strait food safety notification system, asked related government agencies to formulate measures to further ensure the safety of such products. At the same time, he instructed the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Department of Health to convene a conference or make announcements in the near future to explain the steps taken by the government to ensure food safety, with the information released reflecting the decisions made at a recent national food safety conference.
President Ma called on food manufacturers to fulfill their responsibility to provide safe products, and to make even more efforts to monitor any potential problems. He suggested that the industry could adopt a covenant or rules to raise the image of the industry. The president stated that the government has been steadfast in handling the food additives incident in a transparent and responsible manner, and has kept 22 jurisdictions informed regarding the latest developments in the matter. He remarked that it is preferable to accept losses and to act in an honest, transparent, and responsible way. This is the soft power that Taiwan is seeking to show the world, he said, adding that he is confident that this is the way for Taiwan to restore its credibility in the food industry.
The president stressed that the best method of managing a crisis is through crisis prevention. In other words, if a well thought-out system is already set up in advance to provide for a certain level of preparatory and response measures, then the possibility of a crisis developing will naturally be reduced.
During the conference, the participating GMP food manufacturers presented President Ma with a Declaration to Strengthen Food Safety. They also pledged to fulfill their responsibility to society and enhance their abilities to inspect ingredients and manage their products and operations. The participants also agreed to strengthen the management of sources of foods and institute a food traceability system, while also boosting the availability of foods made using GMP. After the conference, the president tasted some of the products made by these GMP companies and praised their work to promote the GMP system for food products.