Prioritize the issue of US beef, and send two articles to the esophageal law

The Executive Yuan will pass the "Food Sanitation Management Act Amendment Draft" tomorrow. The Yuan version will amend a total of 59 articles. However, in order to give priority to the issue of American beef, Article 11 and Article 17-1 related to the import of American beef with ractopamine will be extracted according to the conclusion of negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, and will be sent to the Legislative Yuan first to be reviewed together with the proposal versions of 17 legislators.

Article 11 of the Executive Yuan version of the law, regarding the regulation of clenbuterol content, authorizes the competent authority (Department of Health) to set the safe tolerance standard for beta-leptin. Domestic and foreign meat products and related products shall not contain beta-leptin, except those that are deemed harmless to human health in accordance with the safe tolerance standard set by the central competent authority.

Article 17-1 is about mandatory labeling. For places that directly provide food, they may require specific foods to be labeled with the product name, origin (country), manufacturing date or expiration date in Chinese. The central competent authority shall announce the specific food categories, labeling items, methods and scope.

On March 29, the Health and Environmental Protection Committee reviewed the Esophageal Act Amendment Bill for the first time. As the opposition party did not see the Executive Yuan's version, it refused to review it. Convener Tsai Chin-lung announced that it would be submitted for negotiation, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the opposition party and led to a full boycott of the Legislative Yuan. After negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, it was decided that the bill review would return to the starting point. The Health and Environmental Protection Committee will review Articles 11 and 17 of the Esophageal Act of the Executive Yuan version together with the versions proposed by other legislators.