Taipei City Government

People are always dining out in the busy modern society. In order to materialize the goals of 10 Food Safety and Safe Eating Out stipulated in the city’s White Book, the DOH has already implemented the Food Sanitation Management and Grading System on 17 food court food service providers in 2019. These include SOGO Department Store, Q Square, Eslite Spectrum Nanxi, and Miramar, accrediting 958 department store food courts and outstanding restaurants (885 GHP EXCELLENT restaurants and 73 GHP GOOD restaurants, please refer to the attached list). The list is published on the DOH’s Food Safety Information Website, where citizens may look up department store delicacies to protect their health before going to a restaurant. At the same time, the policy aims to improve the restaurants’ food hygiene self-management skills.

According to the DOH, as stipulated by Article 11 of Taipei City’s Self-Governing Regulations for Food Safety in July 2019, all food service providers in the food court of department stores, bus stations and shopping districts are required to apply for the Food Sanitation Management and Grading System Certification Label. The key criteria of the grading involve 5 main dimensions such as employee management, environmental management, equipment and facility management, material and storage management, as well as production and quality management. Taipei City is the first municipality in the country to place emphasis on food information transparency; citizens may search for any restaurant’s food sanitation management grading information by looking up department store and shopping district delicacy-related details on the Food & Drug Inspection Map Taipei (iMAP, https://imap.health.gov.tw/) using a computer or mobile device. Moreover, iMAP also indicates the outcome of food safety inspection by the DOH, allowing shoppers to enjoy gastronomy with peace of mind and convenience.

The DOH elaborated that 7 industry categories included in the Food Sanitation Management and Grading System have been announced: catering departments within tourist hotels (one that is managed by the hotel or outsourced to an outside caterer); lunch box food factories; deli areas within supermarket chains or shopping arcades; Chinese banquet restaurants with a capacity of more than 20 tables; buffet restaurant chains; and senior high school and vocational school canteens. Since 2016, 1,023 food service providers in the said industry category have joined the grading system. In total, 968 have obtained certification, achieving a ratio of 94.6%. Furthermore, the essence of Article 12 of Taipei City’s Self-Governing Regulations for Food Safety was implemented, stipulating that food service providers regularly inspect the sell-by date of food and the integrity of labeling, as well as remove foods that are past their sell-by date. They are also required to comply with the principle of first in first out (FIFO) and document all details accordingly. The DOH requests all food service providers that have obtained the GHP EXCELLENT label to display it at the entrance of their establishment for consumers’ ease of identification.

According to the DOH, the list of food service providers that have obtained the certification will be announced on the DOH’s website (https://health.gov.taipei/) and iMAP (https://imap.health.gov.tw/) for the public’s reference.