Date of Issue: 1 March 2017
Date of Effect: Immediate
Attention:
Industry - Seafood
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources - Central and regional offices
Affected Markets: Taiwan
Further information: Please contact Exports if you have queries.
This market access advice (MAA) advises that the department has made the following changes to the entries in the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MiCOR) relating to expiry dates and labelling requirements for Taiwan.
- All labels must now include an expiry date in the format, year, month and day. Products with a shelf life greater than 3 months can be labelled with the year and month only.
- All labels and external packaging must be in traditional Chinese; English is permitted but must be supplementary to the Chinese.
- All labels must include the product name, weight, volume or quantity, ingredients and additives, manufacturer, country of origin, expiry and nutritional details.
- If the products are to be re-packaged or processed in Taiwan then a temporary Chinese labelling exemption can be applied for when submitting an application for Taiwan Food and Drug Administration’s import inspection. Chinese labelling must still be applied before the products are sold.
- These requirements will need to be included in the companies Approved Arrangement.
Please note that the expiry date requirements have been in place since 10 December 2014. However, recently exporters reported that importers in Taiwan had been issuing reminders of these requirements.
The Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation and its enforcement rules comprise the legal basis for Taiwanese labelling requirements. The labelling requirements for food and food raw materials, including meat, are stated in Article 22 (Chapter V) of Taiwan’s Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation. This Article can be viewed at: https://consumer.fda.gov.tw/Law/Detail.aspx?nodeID=518&lang=1&lawid=292
Exporters are encouraged to work closely with their importers to ensure that all of their products comply with Taiwanese importing and labelling requirements prior to export of consignments.
MICoR has been updated to reflect the changes to the enforcement of Taiwanese expiry date and labelling requirements.
Industry was consulted in the preparation of this Market Access Advice.
The information provided above is current at the time of writing and is intended for use as guidance only and should not be taken as definitive or exhaustive. The Commonwealth endeavours to keep information current and accurate, however, it may be subject to change without notice. Exporters are encouraged to verify these details with their importers prior to undertaking production/exports. The Commonwealth will not accept liability for any loss resulting from reliance on information contained in this notice.