Ⅰ. Title
Policy Directions and Strategies for the better Implementation of Food Labeling System to enhance Quality Competitiveness of Agro-Food Products in Korea
Ⅱ. Objectives of Study
The objectives of this study are to suggest policy directions and strategies for the better implementation of food labeling system for corresponding to the changing consumer's preferences and world trade orders in the domestic and world market.
Ⅲ. Results and Suggestions
Korean food labeling systems were established based on “Agricultural Products Quality Control Act(APQCA)”, “Livestock Product Processing Act(LPPA)”, “Fisheries Products Quality Control Act(FPQCA)”, “Environmentally Friendly Agriculture Promotion Act(EFAPA)”, and “Food Sanitation Act(FSA)”. Each act is involved with individual food commodities. It resulted in inefficiencies in terms of implementation of the related policies. Most of regulations for the specific issues are overlapped because Acts associated with food labeling are interrelated each other. There exist some inconsistency on regulations and executing procedures. Regarding general labeling criteria, there are no legal standards for the quality of bulk types of products. Certification systems lacks for consistency across the related regulation system. For example, certification of organic agricultural products is ruled by the EFAPA while certification of processed food and organic food, which contain organic materials, is ruled by “Agricultural Processing Industry Promotion Acts(APIPA)” and FSA, respectively.
Food labeling on bulk products and processed food are exceptionally integrated and consistent with “Commodity Origin of Labeling(COOL)” and “Geographical Indications(GI)”. However, COOL has also some contradictions across the food items on criteria of commodity classification because the classification follows ?The Code of Food? rather than APQCA. Regarding a false description and an exaggerative advertisement, there are some prohibition regulations on the FSA and LPPA while ther are no specific regulation on the APQCA and FPQCA. Monitoring and post management are conducted at the regular basis only for the COOL while other food labeling are conducted irregularly with food safety survey. Current issues on the post management of food labeling can be summarized with lack of experts, sharing managerial information between agencies, and linkages across regulations.
Results for consumer survey showed that COOL is highly recognized compared to quality certification, organic food certification, GI, and HACCP. Most consumer thought that the country origin should not become ‘made in Korea’ if cabbage of Kimchi is from China although Kimchi has made in Korea using the imported cabbage. Consumers were not comfortable with lack of labeling information, location of the labeling, and size and shape of the labeling. Expert survey showed that the labeling associated with COOL and GMO were successfully implemented compared to KS, ISO and GI.
Generally, regulations and acts associated with food labeling in developed countries such Japan, EU and U.S. are integrated and consistent with food commodities. Certification system is run by the third sectors or private organization. These countries focused on preparation of guide lines and post management system. COOL, GI and GMO labeling are not successfully implemented in the U.S. while those labeling were well done in E.U. For most developed countries such as EU and U.S and Japan, organic food certification of agricultural products were consistent with processed food in terms of criteria of applied regulations.
The basic idea for the improvement of food labeling include following four aspects: consumer oriented labeling scheme, harmonization with international standards, improving efficiency of management system and support of producer's quality assurance program. It is recommended that Acts associated with food labeling are merged into the integrated act to keep consistencies and clear cuts on regulations, labeling and classification. Japan has integrated the related Acts through the legislation of JAS. Ideas for the integrated Acts were reviewed through three scenarios following the relevant acts, administrative and monitoring organization.
Scenario 1 is associated with legislation of the integrated Acts and the merger of administrative and monitoring organization. In scenario 2, the administrative and monitoring organization maintain current system although the integrated Act is legislated. In scenario 3, organization of ‘Food Labeling Coordination Committee(FLCC)’ is suggested under current Acts and management system. FLCC could discuss direction of the integrated Acts as concerned, especially for the COOL and Organic Food Labeling. In the short term, scenario 3 is preferred while scenario 1 and 2 are preferred in the long term.
It is desirable to establish “Food labeling and Standard Acts” in the future. Future directions for the regulations of food labeling and enforcement procedure can be summarized as follows:
First, goal and nature of the related Acts should be clearly identified through harmonization of food classification criteria. Second, it is important to provide the legal evidence and guide lines for bulk products labeling. Third, regarding COOL, the labeling food items should be expanded at agricultural products basis to increase the relevancy between agricultural products and processed food. Fourth, the Acts associated with environmentally friendly agriculture certification should be integrated as the unified Act.
Formular of food labeling should be integrated within “Agricultural Products Quality Acts” in the near future. The existing environmentally friendly agricultural products labeling system should be divided into two schemes such as organic labeling. Reduced chemicals farming and no chemicals farming should be certified by the self quality control system rather than government certification system. Organic labeling for fresh products should be integrated with organic processed food labeling scheme. In order to consolidate liability of the private certification, it is needed to enforce drastic post management and to increase experts. For the establishment of food labeling infra structure, it is necessary to strengthen monitoring system, to improve the labeling description, and to increase consumer education and advertizement.