A six-month trial program requiring eight major retailers to mark the country of origin of eggs that had undergone “substantive transformation” was launched on Monday to address public concerns over product quality, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Opposition politicians have been questioning the quality of imported eggs, including whether they have been used for “egg products that have undergone substantive transformation,” such as tea eggs, hard-boiled eggs, braised eggs and soft-boiled eggs.
Current regulations state that raw eggs processed into tea eggs or hard-boiled eggs can be labeled as made in Taiwan, but public perception of what qualified as “made in Taiwan” might be different, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
That prompted the FDA to launch the trial program, and four convenience store and four major supermarket chains agreed to cooperate, he said.
The four major convenience store chains are 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, OK Mart and Hi-Life, and the four major supermarket chains are Carrefour, RT-Mart, A-Mart Taiwan and Pxmart, he said.
The recommended labeling methods include using a sticker, a hanging sign or a sign on a stick near the pot of cooked eggs to mark the country of origin, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
If a store is found to have made a fraudulent claim about the country of origin, it may be fined between NT$40,000 and NT$4 million (US$1,241 and US$124,050) for contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), he said.
If a convenience store plans to sell tea eggs using imported eggs from different countries, the FDA recommends that they separate the eggs into different pots and label them respectively, Lin said, adding that the FDA has provided template samples on its Web site that stores can download.
When the six-month trial is completed and public response is positive, the FDA would initiate regulatory changes that would make it mandatory for all sellers and stores to include county of origin labels, he said.
The new rule would take effect two months after an official announcement of the changes, he added.
Lin also provided an update on an ongoing inspection of shell eggs at retailers nationwide, saying that as of Tuesday, 3,293 items had passed inspections on appearance and labeling.
The agency is also inspecting 80 items for animal drug residues, with 56 passing the test and the remainder still being tested.
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