The legislature has passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation to ban the use of artificial trans-fats in food.
KMT lawmaker Wang Yu-Min, who initiated the amendment, spoke Friday about how the amendment will take effect.
"In the future, we will authorize the authorities to ban the use of artificial trans-fats, Wang said. "They will announce the date the rules will take effect and the details of the ban. Violators can be fined up to US$100,000."
Wang said that the US Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will ban the use of some trans-unsaturated fatty acids before 2018. She said that food companies in Taiwan, by contrast, are allowed to use trans-fats as long as they include trans-fat content on labels.
Wang has encouraged the government to put the amendment into action soon.