President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday announced Taiwan would overturn its ban on certain US beef and pork imports. Taiwan’s meat industry thus has started to work on putting clear labels describing the place of origin on meat packaging.
On August 28, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration announced that pork and beef packages must have labels indicating the origin of the meat. That’s after President Tsai Ing-wen announced that day that Taiwan will allow imports of US beef of cattle 30 months and older and pork with ractopamine.
On August 31, the administration announced that all restaurants, eateries, and night market stalls must show the place of origin of the meat they use on their menus and signs. The new measure requires that the lettering on the menus cannot be smaller than 4 cm. while the print on signs cannot be smaller than 2 cm. Any violators could be fined up to NT$3 million (US$102,000) while those who are dishonest with their labeling could be fined up to NT$4 million (US$136,000).
The new measure is set to take place starting January 1, 2021.