The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed the Nutrition and Healthy Diet Promotion Act (營養及健康飲食促進法), authorizing the establishment of a nutritional value database and penalties for incorrect content labeling.
The act still needs to be signed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) before it is promulgated.
Taiwan needs to cut down on how much unhealthy food is sold and disseminate factually correct information on diet if the government’s duty to protect public health is to be fulfilled, lawmakers said in the bill’s statement of purpose.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Japan, South Korea, the US and other developed countries already have mechanisms to monitor the diet and nutrition of their citizens, teach good dietary habits and improve nutritional quality, they said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that the bill codifies the survey and database-building efforts that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has already achieved.
It requires health officials to consult with the broader community of health experts in setting diet policy, Wu said.
In addition, the law specifies that government agencies must establish a budget for promoting better diets, she said.
It stipulates that deliberately spreading erroneous information about food or diet via a public medium, including television, radio and the Internet, is punishable by fines of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 (US$959 to US$9,594), which can be repeated if there is failure to comply.
The bill stipulates that local health officials are to bar erroneous information about food or diet from being distributed on public media, including television, radio and the Internet.
The bill requires the ministry to institute a regular national diet survey, maintain a nutritional content database and publish comprehensive diet guidelines for different demographic groups.
The guidelines should be revised every five years and take dietary restrictions into account, including those stemming from religion or culture, it says.
The government is to deal with problems the surveys identify through public education to target unhealthy trends or by encouraging manufacturers to utilize nutritional additives, the bill says.
Health officials must address malnutrition among residents of remote regions in Taiwan who lack access to specific types of foods by providing subsidies and improving food supplies, it says.
The ministry and other agencies should promote nutritional knowledge among doctors, nurses, care workers, public health professionals and food industry technicians, it says.
Incentives should be established to encourage charities and other non-governmental groups that receive public funding to provide nutrition training to staff, it says.
Government agencies should ensure nutrition training is provided for their social welfare, child welfare, long-term care, healthcare and military personnel, it says.
Separately, lawmakers passed amendments to the Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例) to enhance penalties for ticket scalping.
The amendments stipulate that selling tickets for sporting events above the price set by organizers is punishable by a fine of 10 to 50 times the face value of the tickets.
Scalpers who use forged credentials or other illicit means to buy tickets in bulk would face up to three years in prison, commutable by a fine of no more than NT$3 million, the amendments say.
Reasonable surcharges for group purchases of seating at events to cover overhead or mailing costs are exempt, they say.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS