美國食品安全現代化法淺析：以進口食品監管制度為中心

A Preliminary Analysis of the Import Safety Regulatory Framework under the United States Food Safety Modernization Act

隨著經濟全球化與食品供應鏈大規模擴張，近年來食品安全議題已不受國境邊界拘束，對各國造成衝擊，成為棘手的全球治理議題。即令美國一般高度發展國家，亦無法避免大規模食品安全事件發生，許多論者更指出美國食品安全管理制度存有許多瑕疵。美國食品安全現代化法即係相應誕生之法律，透過擴張行政管制權責、監控食品供應鏈及「預防」管制哲學，嘗試解決嚴重的食品安全問題。新法更針對進口食品制定創新監管制度，促使進口與國產食品遵循相同規範。本文檢視新法三大改革主軸，詳盡分析進口食品監管規範內涵，包含外國供應商查證計畫、自願性合格進口商計畫、進口食品驗證與第三方認驗證制度等，研討不同制度設計之管制優勢與潛在問題。

Together with the globalization of economic activities and the expansion of food supply chains, food safety has emerged as a chal-lenging global governance issue which transcends borders and im-pacts public health in individual nation-states. This challenge is shared by both developed and developing countries, including the United States, where regulatory flaws and food safety outbreaks are commonplace. The Food Safety Modernization Act was recently in-troduced to address the regulatory inadequacies in the United States, and aims to expand administrative authorities in regulating food products as well as to monitor the entire supply chain based on a “preventive” regulatory philosophy. The new law also mandates a series of reforms in the regulatory system governing import food safety, with the general objective of ensuring the same level of safety and law compliance between domestic and imported products. This article judiciously examines the three major axes of regulatory re-form under the Food Safety Modernization Act, with a particular analytical focus on the import safety rules, including the Foreign Supplier Verification Program, Voluntary Qualified Importer Pro-gram, and Third Party Audit and Certification Systems. Based on the analysis, the article concludes by offering an in-depth evaluation on the challenges and opportunities arising from the innovative institu-tional designs of the new law.