Taipei - Taiwan is to enact the world's strictest law on
labeling vegetarian food at the request of Buddhists and people who
eat vegetarian for health reasons, the health ministry said Monday.
Starting from July 1, Taiwan food manufacturers must use five
categories, up from the current two, to identify the content of
vegetarian food. Violators will be fined from 40,000 to 200,000
Taiwan dollars (1,200-6,000 US dollars), the Department of Health
said.
Currently the labelling only indicates whether food is pure
vegetarian or contains no meat but egg and milk. Now added are
categories separating egg and milk as well as vegan.
Pure vegetarian refers to food which does not contain meat, egg,
milk or plants including onion, garlic or leek, which are spicy and
considered unclean and bad for meditation. They are banned for strict
Buddhist practitioners. Vegan, on the other hand, may contain the
'unclean' vegetables.
The new rule also bans food manufacturers from labelling food as
vegetarian if it is fermented - like chilly sauce - and its alcohol
content exceeds 8 per cent.
'We request clear labeling of vegetarian food to meet the needs of
the growing number of vegetarian food users of about 2 million, and
to help religious practitioners not break food taboos,' health
department official Hsu Ching-hsin said.
Most Taiwan food manufacturers support the government's labelling
requirements, but find it difficult to implement them.
'We will comply with the rule, but we are afraid that it could be
confusing to consumers if we print too much information on the food
packages,' Wu Hsu-hui, a spokeswoman for Uni-President Enterprises
Corp, Taiwan's largest food conglomerate told the German Press Agency
dpa.
But Pasadena Bakery, which sells more than 100 kinds of cakes and
bread in three outlets in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan, sees no difficulty
in following the new rule.
'We are already using the pure veggie and egg/milk veggie labels.
It is easy for us for us to expand that to five labels,' Chien
Su-ling, the bakery's brand name manager, said.
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