As technology advances, food production technology, food features and food availability are constantly improved. New edible sources, planting techniques and processing methods have been discovered and used in the production of processed or modified food. Besides, people’s consumption behavior has been change from the general intake of nutrients to the demand for health benefit. Therefore, there are many functional ingredients are used as health-promoting additives in health food and some may even be used as a general food on a daily basis. However, the impact of these ingredients on human health is still unclear. Hence, food safety assessment is imperative. The implementations of this project are as follows: 1. Search and collect the toxicological information and international regulations of the following 30 items in “The list of edible raw materials (ingredients)” and compose safety evaluation reports, including their current consumption levels, recommended intake amount and the warming/advisory statements (announcements) on the product labels. 2. Assess the items without sufficient toxicological data for their toxicity via microbial gene mutation analysis and in vitro mammalian cell genotoxicity analysis. The result will be included in the safety evaluation reports. 3. Investigate the usage of food ingredients in capsule and tablet on the market and create a product list. According to the result, TFDA would re-evaluate the items in “The list of edible raw materials” and making the following adjustment on the list: (1) Recommend to delete the items with low usage and insufficient safety evaluation data. (2) Recommend to request supplement safety evaluation data of items widely used in the market without sufficient safety assessments. (3) Recommend to enlist the items widely used in the market, but not in “The list of edible raw materials”. 4. Compare other countries’review procedures of non-traditional food ingredient with TFDA’s“The submission of safety evaluation data for non-traditional food ingredient” according to the ingredient classification and it’s risk level in order to establish Taiwan’s application regulation for the safety evaluation of non-traditional food ingredient. 5. Establish a draft of the safety criteria for the assessment of microorganisms including single-celled eukaryotic. These draft provide for both the rigour and the flexibility required to determine the need for notification and to conduct the safety assessment of the broad range of microorganisms food products being developed. 6. Host a progress review meeting focusing on the evaluation of project content and execution to provide the future regulation guidelines for the government by analyzing the opinions of the experts and professionals on the review and regulations for non-traditional food ingredients. 7. Respond to the request from the Council. The implementation of this project will benefit to the establishment of the Department of Health initiative for food safety assessment system. Besides, the results will provide valuable in Government policy formulation for the assessment, development of new products as well as improvement of the public understanding of food safety.
|Effective start/end date||1/1/15 → 12/31/15|