February 14, 2008

 

Japan may implement unified food-labeling law

 

 

An advisory panel on consumer protection is set to recommend a series of steps aimed at bolstering food safety, such as creating a unified law governing food-labeling rules and requiring manufacturers to show a single expiration date, The Nikkei reported in its Thursday (February 14, 2008) morning edition.

 

The Cabinet Office's Social Policy Council will unveil its recommendations Thursday, with the aim of compiling a final report in March. This comes in the wake of food-labeling scandals that prompted Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda last November to call for a comprehensive review of administrative and legislative structures governing the food industry.

 

The outbreak of food poisoning involving pesticide-tainted frozen dumplings imported from China is also spurring the government to take swift action to bolster food-safety measures.

 

Currently, food-labeling rules are set by multiple laws such as the Japanese Agricultural Standards Law, which focuses on providing consumers with information about a product's place-of-origin and ingredients, and the Food Sanitation Law, which aims to prevent health hazards from allergens and other factors. But because all food products do not offer the same information, consumer advocates have cited a lack of uniformity and clarity in how foods are labeled.

 

The Social Policy Council's report calls for the confiscation of improper profits earned by companies failing to comply with food-labeling rules as well as the integration of organizations tasked with conducting inspections and issuing penalties.

 

The council will also propose changes to how food expiration dates are displayed on products. Currently, products that face a slow erosion in quality with the passage of time are assigned "best before" dates, while products that can spoil quickly are labeled with consumption expiration dates.

 

The report also seeks to include production dates while requiring the display of expiration dates for all products.

 

To strengthen food safety, the report recommends the establishment of a database to store consumer information reported to public health offices, the police and consumer-advocate centers.

 

Specialists would also be assigned to analyze the data and prevent a recurrence of problems.

 

If a company discovers an issue that threatens food safety, it would be required to report it to pertinent government ministries and agencies, the report says.

 

The council also recommends stricter import-quarantine rules, citing the need for testing of pesticide residue in processed food products and an increase in officials assigned to inspections.