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b. Major emergencies of 2014 included the
Tainted Cooking Oil Incident and Illegal Use of Dimethyl
Yellow
. Emergency response mechanisms were activated to deal with these emergencies. In
addition to daily surveillance and analysis of public opinion, establishing a dedicated website zone
for these incidents, formulating Q&A, and submitting
daily work reports
to supervising agencies,
TFDA also carried out internal evaluations and improvements and composed a post-incident report
for future reference.
(2) Revising Emergency Response Documents
To strengthen the effectiveness and improve the cycle-time of crisis handling by TFDA, relevant
document revisions were made in 2014, as follows:
a. To strengthen the ability of TFDA in handling public opinions and the incident itself, the
spokesperson system described in the Emergency
Response Manual
has been amended to report
emergencies and carry out relevant responses.
b. To ensure information review and quality of news media publications,the
Guidelines to Press
Release Operations
have been revised accordingly. All agencies publishing food-related press
articles must notify the health bureau of their jurisdiction via
Taiwan's International Food Safety
Authority Network
(TIFSAN) one hour before the release of the articles.
c. To improve the reporting efficiency for incidents that gave rise to major public opinions and
discussions, the
Guidelines for Handling and Reporting Major Public Controversies and Incidents
have been revised. Major public controversies and preliminary handling must be immediately
communicated to superiors via instant messaging to ensure that the latest information are
communicated comprehensively.
d. To improve major incident response effectiveness, amendments have been made to
Response
Checklist for Class 1 Emergencies
. Checklist items have been added as a result of the handling of
cooking oil product adulteration as well as illegal adding of copper chlorophyll.
3. Public Opinion Monitoring and Post-market Surveillance Mechanism
(1) Monitoring of Public Opinion
a. Following its risk monitoring workflow (Figure 7-2), TFDA has monitored public opinions related to
TFDA work since 2010. Relevant public opinions reflected in domestic printed and electronic media
are monitored on a daily basis to quickly assess the state of media publications and to compile
and analyze developments of public opinions and their level of impact. Relevant information is
then communicated to superiors and responsible units via cellphone text messaging or emails
to facilitate comprehensive information control, allowing the TFDA to describe the incident to the
media and general public. Also, press releases are issued when necessary to provide correct
information and prevent unnecessary public panic.
b. In 2014, a total of 4,946 news prints, 281 public feedback and opinion articles on magazines,
and 470 press articles were compiled, while a total of 2,833 international food and drug safety
information have been monitored accordingly.
(2) Post-market Surveillance
a. To monitor post-market quality and safety of the products, TFDA has continued to implement post-
market surveillance. Marketed products that pose higher risks, that are likely to impact the health
of specific demographics, that are considered essential consumer items, or items of domestic or
global concern were sampled and tested. Previous or past survey results and other factors were
also referenced to develop the surveillance plan.