The South Korean government said Tuesday it will tighten regulations and standards for food manufacturing companies to ensure health safety.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it planss to implement from July a one-strike-out policy involving its controversial application of hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP, when a certified company violates basic food safety principles.
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(Yonhap) |
HACCP is a preventative management system that verifies and manages risks in the entire process of managing raw materials, manufacturing, processing, cooking and distributing food.
The ministry’s HACCP division came under criticism after eggs from HACCP-certified farms were found to have carried insecticide residue in 2017. Last year, the reputation was further hit after a certified cake supplier to schools was found be the source of food poisoning.
With the reinforced measures, the ministry said that when a HACCP-certified company is found to have neglected to prevent risks by violating sanitary rules upon inspection its certification will be canceled immediately without notification.
The government also plans to adopt a system in October to automatically record the history of inspections to prevent forging and falsification of records.
According to a government report, the number of companies violating the act increased from 111 in 2012 to 137 in 2017.
By Shin Ji-hye (
shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
