South Korea: multiple laws to build food safety system

With the rapid development of economy, a series of food safety problems have appeared in South Korea, such as fake wine and pesticide vegetables Therefore, South Korea formulated the food hygiene law in 1962 Later, taking the "baozi stuffing incident" in 2004 as an opportunity, in 2008, the basic law on food safety was formulated while the food hygiene law was greatly revised The main legislative purpose of Korean food hygiene law is to "prevent the harm caused by food hygiene, improve the nutritional quality of food and enhance the national health care" (Article 1), emphasizing that food, food additives, utensils, containers and packages must be hygienic This law mainly provides for food, food additives, labeling, packaging, inspection standards, business license, punishment standards, etc together with the implementation rules, this law has formed a systematic, professional and scientific standard on food hygiene in South Korea The law expressly prohibits the sale and gift of unsanitary food and food additives, as well as the collection, manufacture, import, processing, use, storage, display and other acts for the purpose of sale (Article 4) As for the chemical synthesis, the law expressly prohibits the unspecified chemical synthesis from being used as food additives, and clearly lists the standards and specifications of food additives in Article 7 of the law and includes them in the public code of food additives (Article 12) This Law stipulates that the food for sale must conform to the labeling standards, otherwise it is prohibited to sell, and false labeling or labeling mixed with pharmaceutical products is not allowed The basic law on food safety is the most important law on food safety in South Korea, which has six chapters The first chapter is the general principles; the second chapter is the establishment and promotion system of food safety policy; the third chapter is the emergency response and follow-up investigation; the fourth chapter is the scientific management of food safety; the fifth chapter is information disclosure and mutual cooperation; the sixth chapter is consumer participation The basic law of food safety unifies the food safety policies scattered in various departments and improves the efficiency of policy implementation The legislative purpose of the law is to "clarify the rights and obligations of the people related to food safety and the responsibilities of the national and local autonomous groups, establish and adjust the food safety policies, and promote the healthy and safe food life of the people" The second chapter of the law clearly states that the relevant administrative organs shall formulate a three-year food safety management plan and report it to the state premier The food safety policy committee established in accordance with the law shall coordinate and evaluate relevant plans, notify relevant authorities for implementation, and clarify the food safety policy and promotion system The third chapter details the emergency response plan issued by the state in the event of major hazards or possible major hazards to national health, and specifically specifies the food recall system The fourth chapter defines the obligation of the relevant administrative departments to formulate the evaluation standards of food and other hazards and conduct regular review accordingly, and especially mentions the safety management of new food such as genetically modified food The fifth chapter clarifies the obligation of information disclosure of government authorities, and provides a system to listen to the opinions of operators and consumers The sixth chapter "consumer participation", in order to enhance consumer participation in food safety management, provides relevant incentive system and consumer reporting protection system In addition, the laws related to food in South Korea include the law on the revitalization of food industry, the law on health food, the special law on the safety management of children's diet and life, the law on the revitalization of food enterprises, the basic law on agriculture and fishery, agriculture and fishing villages and food industry, the law on the quality management of agricultural products, the law on the health management of livestock products, and many other laws, covering food and drug safety All aspects In terms of licensing, according to the provisions of the food hygiene law of South Korea, both the food production enterprises and the food import enterprises must declare and register the food produced and imported in advance, and only after obtaining the license can they be listed for marketing At the same time, it also requires that the food on the market must conform to the food or food additives that can be used in the public code, so as to ensure that the food on the market will not bring unsafe to the health of consumers Although this may cause certain market access barriers, that is, the rigid food technical standards may form the protection of vested interests, but it is more conducive to the protection of consumers' health than the original ex post punishment method In case of violation of relevant laws or health standards after obtaining the license, administrative sanctions such as correction order, prohibition of sales, destruction and disposal, and cancellation of the license can be adopted to realize the ultimate protection of consumers' health In the aspect of law enforcement, South Korea divides the administrative organization of food management into three types: multiple, single and overall South Korea can be said to be a typical integrated food safety administration system In South Korea, the government departments involved in food health management mainly include the Ministry of education, science and technology, the Ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the Ministry of knowledge and economy, the Ministry of health and welfare, the Ministry of environment, the Department of rural revitalization, the Department of food and drug safety, etc Each department has a clear division of labor The Ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries is responsible for the quality and safety management of agricultural products and aquatic products in the production, storage and wholesale markets, the quality and safety management of livestock products in the whole process from "farm to table", the quality certification, geographical identification management, origin management and GMO identification management of agricultural, fishery and livestock products, as well as the pests and diseases of imported agricultural, fishery and livestock products and their processed products Quarantine and quality and safety management of animal products (including processed products) The food and drug safety department is responsible for the safety management of agricultural and aquatic products processed (products whose original form cannot be identified after processing) and agricultural and aquatic products in the circulation field In order to coordinate the relations between various departments, South Korea has also set up a "food safety countermeasures committee" with the prime minister as the chairman, which is responsible for formulating guidelines and policies for food safety regulations, organizing and coordinating between departments, and organizing and handling food safety accidents The unification and preciseness of legislation and law enforcement in South Korea have built a good order of food safety.