食品違規與食品安全

Food Illegality and Food Safety

國內外媒體常出現食品議題，每一個事件都引起民眾很大的注意。食品安全管理是政府的強制執法活動，其目的在保護國民健康，也就是確保所有的食品，不論在生產、調理、儲存、加工及販賣過程中達到安全完整，符合安全與品質規定，以適合人類食用。食品衛生標準常被用來作為安全與否的指標，但衛生標準係就正常生產製造或加工情況下無法避免的污染，或基於加工需要而添加者，予以限量的規定，作為管理的行政處理點（compliance level），不是健康危害的分界線。行政處理標準與健康危害標準間，有一段相當的距離，行政處理標準的數值通常訂得很低，一旦超出這個數值較低的標準時，政府就應採取行動，以免達到那個較高數值的健康危害標準。如此，便可確保民眾的健康與安全。整體而言，源頭管理是食品安全管理的最重要精神，食品安全的責任在於業者，政府扮演稽查的角色，消費者扮演監督的功能，這樣才能確保食品安全。

Problems with food products frequently attract public attention in the media. Food safety legislation is part of the framework of government, and compliance is mandatory. The aim is to protect human health, i.e. to ensure that all foods sold to the public are wholesome and pure, and comply with food regulations and standards during production, preparation, storage, processing and distribution. Food safety standards have often been used as indicators of whether food is safe or not, but in fact contamination is unavoidable under normal processing, and additives are often necessary. The standards set limits on this contamination or limits on additives. The standards set a compliance level, not a health risk level. There is a big distance between these two levels. The value of the compliance level is often lower than that of the health risk level. In case the lower value is violated, the authorities have to take some regulatory action to prevent violation at the higher value so to protect public health. 'From farm to table' begins from the farm, and the point of origin is most important. The food industry bears the most important responsibility for food safety, the government carries out the task of inspection, and consumers also have a role to play, which is that of supervision.