The Regulations Governing Food Allergen Labeling (食品過敏原標示規定) are being modified to expand the list of major food allergens required to be mentioned on food labels from six to 11, and the new rules will take effect on July 1, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.
Food labels are now required if the product includes shrimp, crab, mango, peanuts, milk or eggs.
The modifications include replacing shrimps and crabs with “crustacean shellfish,” which includes shrimps, crabs, mud crabs and lobsters, the FDA said.
“Nuts” are being added to the list along with “sesame,” “gluten-containing cereals” — except glucose syrup, maltodextrin and alcohol produced from cereals — and “soybean” — except highly refined or purified soybean oil, tocopherols, and their derivatives such as phytosterols and phytosterol esters.
“Fish” is another new category — except fish gelatine used as carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations, and fish gelatine used as fining agent in alcohol — and the “use of sulfites” — at concentrations of 10 milligrams per kilogram or more in terms of total sulfur dioxide residues in the final products.
A warning label will now be required on the packaging of food products containing any of the 11 types of allergens, the FDA said.
Once the new rules take effect in 2020, companies that fail to correctly or completely label the allergens, or deliberately mislabel their products could face mandatory recall of the product and a fine ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$4 million (US$976 and US$130,166), it added.
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