Taiwan warns food importers to label products in Mandarin

March 4, 2014

TAIPEI – Health authorities in Taiwan have warned that companies selling imported food products should make sure the ingredients are clearly labelled in Mandarin, or risk a fine of up to NT$3 million (US$99,000).

The Act Governing Food Sanitation requires that imported food products be labelled in Chinese, Hsu Chin-feng, an official with Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told a news conference called by lawmaker Lin Tsang-min of the ruling Kuomintang, who raised the issue of imported food labelling.

Lin said some imported food products in supermarkets and grocery stores in Taiwan do not carry Chinese-language labels and he called for tighter inspections. The label should clearly show in Mandarin the name of the product, its ingredients, weight, and additives, Hsu said (ATI).