Improving sanitation and safety of livestock products
In order to protect the health and the rights of consumers, while at the same time ensuring the incomes of livestock businesses, the Council of Agriculture (COA) is using the following relevant measures to produce livestock products free from sanitation and safety concerns.
Emphasizing the special features of local products, strengthening R&D of local products
Using advanced technologies including breeding and genetics, animal-raising management, quality control, and biotechnology, the COA is continuing to strengthen research into the special features of high-quality local livestock and poultry products, and is establishing and promoting relevant quality norms, in order to raise the quality of local livestock and poultry products.
Expanding sanitary and safe production and product certification systems for livestock and poultry products
Having completed the amending of the Agricultural Production and Certification Act, the COA is continuing to uphold and upgrade the trustworthiness of certification systems for premium quality and traceability (such as Certified Agricultural Standards, or CAS, Traceable Agricultural Products, or TAP) that are already popular with consumers. The COA is also encouraging and educating consumers to purchase certified products, to create an incentive for livestock businesses to participate in these certification systems, and from there to comprehensively upgrade the sanitation, safety, and quality of livestock and poultry products. CAS and TAP labels are systems that set out quality specifications and requirements for agricultural and food products. In addition, they offer traceability of domestic agricultural products used as raw materials, indicate that products meet requirements for sanitation and safety, and ensure that packaging and labeling are complete and clear. These features protect the rights and interests of both producers and consumers. Moreover, in order to strengthen production management responsibility at livestock and poultry farms, the COA is promoting QR Code labels for livestock and poultry products, through which consumers can access information about the source farm.
Upgrading testing technology and capabilities, strengthening feed testing and management
The COA is also collecting and utilizing data related to the sanitation and safety of livestock and poultry products to upgrade the testing technology and capabilities of relevant organizations, and is guiding companies and livestock producers to implement self-management to ensure the quality of the materials used to raise livestock and poultry, thereby protecting the safety of domestic consumers.