New Party Taipei City councilors yesterday called for manufacturers’ information to be clearly labeled on store-brand products after two major hypermarkets failed to include detailed information about their own products.
Store-brand products at the two hypermarkets — Carrefour and RT-Mart — failed to include the manufacturers’ addresses and titles on the packaging, compared with other chain stores with self-branded products, such as 7-Eleven, Watsons and A-Mart, all of which provided the information on their products.
“Without such information, consumers have no idea where the products are made and this is particularly unacceptable at a time when consumers are losing confidence in food safety,” New Party Taipei City Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said at the Taipei City Council.
Photo: Liu Jung, Taipei Times
New Party Taipei City Councilor Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) said the two hypermarkets were ignoring consumers’ rights and urged the city’s Department of Health to instruct the two companies and other stores to offer clear information about the manufacturers of their products.
Margery Ho (何默真), public relations director for RT-Mart, said the store put its name on packaging for its store-brand products, rather than the actual manufacturer’s name, because RT-Mart takes full responsibility for the products. She added that consumers could call RT-Mart’s customer hotline if they have any doubts about a product.
Taipei Food and Drug Division Director Chen Li-chi (陳立奇) said the two hypermarkets did not violate regulations regarding store-brand products.
The Commodity Labeling Act (商品標示法) states that manufacturers listed on a product would be held responsible for any problems related to the products, and therefore, by listing its name on its store-brand products, RT-Mart did not violate the law.
However, providing more specific information about the actual manufacturers in addition to information about the product’s origin and the ingredients used would help to meet the public’s expectations, Chen said.
The department would help hypermarkets and other stores to provide more detailed information on their store-brand products, he said.
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