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On December 11, 2017, the Food and Drug Administration of Taiwan (TFDA) released an announcement intending to repeal the existing food allergen labeling regulationsand replace it by a new regulation, which was published at the same time for comments.
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Under the proposed new regulation, TFDA consolidates the existing six categories of foods that are of allergen concern (i.e., mango, shrimp, milk, egg, peanuts, crab) and subject to mandatory labeling, and expands them to eleven categories as follows: (1) Crustacea and products thereof; (2) mango and products thereof; (3) peanuts and products thereof; (4) sesame, sunflower seeds and products thereof; (5) milk, goat milk and products thereof except lactitol derived from milk and goat milk; (6) egg and products thereof; (7) nuts and products thereof, including almond, hazelnut, walnut, cashew nut, pecan, brazil nut, pistachio nut, macadamia nut, pine nuts, chestnuts etc.; (8) cereals containing gluten and products thereof, including wheat, barley, rye, oats etc.; (9) soybean and products thereof, except highly refined or purified soybean oil (fat), tocopherols and their deviation, phytosterols and phytosterol esters; (10) the use of sulphites and sulphur dioxide etc., at concentrations of 10 mg/kg or more in term of total SO2 which are to be calculated for final products; and (11) Salmon, mackerel, codfish, Dissostichus eleginoides (Yuan xue ) , Reinhardtius hippoglossoides (Bian xue ) and products thereof.
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TFDA also specifies the format to declare allergen information on the label, such as “the product contains XX” or other wordings expressing the similar meaning. The common allergen statement used by industry like “may contain” is not addressed in the proposal, which needs further clarification from the authority.
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The new regulation, once adopted, is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2019. TFDA is accepting comments on the proposal for 60 days following its publication on the website, which is by February 11, 2018.
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