Banquet feasts with all TAP ingredients may become a reality sooner than expected. In recent years, the COA has been promoting relentlessly the TAP system, putting high emphases on safety, sustainability, open information and traceable agricultural products in various supermarkets and retail stores. For those who always eat out, the COA has joined forces with Agriculture Multi-discipline Management of Technology to promote the project of traceability restaurants. Starting from January 2014, four leading food service enterprises including W Taipei, The Peng's Agora Garden, Wowprime Corp’s Hot 7 restaurant, and Mellow Fields Hotel will kick off their traceability restaurant services, offering a healthy alternative. On Dec. 25th, 2013, the COA invited hundreds of people to the countryside in Yunlin County for a feast event named “Countryside TAP Banquet" where the COA demonstrated how traceability restaurant services can shorten the distance from farms to dining tables.

Traceability restaurants turn fast-food junkies into healthy diners

The COA explained that traceability restaurants enable food service providers to clearly show their patrons meals prepared with TAP products. Furthermore, through cloud computing technology, customers can have access to real-time images of production place and search for TAP products. These services will let customers understand where the products come from, who grows them, how they are produced, and what their characteristics are. Consequently, people who often eat out can easily choose TAP meals to have healthier food. This in turn will give support to TAP and boost its products' production.

Twelve TAP certified delicacies

In order to promote the concept of traceability restaurants, the TAP banquet event organizers chose Yunlin County to host the event. Besides being a fervent supporter and promoter of the TAP system, Yunlin County also takes up 15% of all the TAP certified producers in Taiwan. Veteran chef Huang Te-chung designed 12 exquisite dishes utilizing nothing but fresh TAP products. Among hundreds of invited guests there were enterprise executives, food service providers, and academic scholars. Besides enjoying safe and delicious food, these guests were able to experience on the table the tracing services close to farms by downloading the Visual Traceability APP to their mobile devices. In addition to diffusing the important concept of achieving balance between taste and health, by means of this banquet the COA also showed that it is not hard to put TAP products on everyone's table.

Order TAP meals and track their origin in traceability restaurants from January 2014

The COA stated that till the end of November, 2013, effective TAP certified producers and businesses accounted for 1,028, and they produced by an environmentally friendly approach 146 kinds of safe and traceable TAP products. In recent years, TAP system has gradually received recognition from consumers, and the monthly average number of TAP labels printed reaches 1.67 million, with a growth rate of 48% compared to 1.13 million in 2012, and 118% compared to 770,000 in 2011.

It is expected that from January, 2014, well-known food service providers including the winner of 2013 "Certificate of Excellence" award, hotel W Taipei; The Peng's Agora Garden, which has been in operation for more than 60 years in Taiwan; the Hot-7 teppanyaki restaurant chain under the renowned Wowprime Corp.; and the Mellow Fields Hotel, jointly invested by agricultural and fishery associations in Taiwan, will all initiate the traceability restaurant service, aiming to offer a safer and more diverse gastronomic environment to the general public.