On Facebook, the well-known Taiwanese tech figure Ben Jai (翟本喬) questioned Article 15 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation. His original post stated: “There’s a problem with Article 15: if expired food cannot be stored or transported, how can it be recalled and destroyed? Must retailers just throw it away? How do they get refunds from suppliers? Strictly speaking, if it’s in the trash, isn’t the garbage truck breaking the law?”
Ben Jai characterized Article 15 as a self-contradictory “bad law,” and the Ministry of Health and Welfare has yet to offer a public explanation. However, we believe that because the food industry is a “business of conscience” (a phrase often used by I-Mei’s Kao Chih-ming), it requires a set of rigorous management standards.
Article 15 of the Food Safety Act: Food or food additives shall not be manufactured, processed, prepared, packaged, transported, stored, sold, imported, exported, gifted, or publicly displayed under any of the following circumstances: … 1. Those that have deteriorated or rotted. … 8. Those whose expiry date has passed.
Especially for those businesses that claim they don’t need certifications like GMP or TQF (looking at you, I-Mei), they have a responsibility to show the public that their internal standards are superior to government ones.
🍎 The Four Stages of Food Management
A proper food management system should track a product through four key milestones: Production, Distribution, Sales, and Disposal (Scrapping). The confusion raised by Ben Jai—and shared by some industry players—stems from failing to distinguish between these stages.
- Production & Distribution: After a product is manufactured, the supplier must ship it to retailers within a timeframe that does not exceed half (or even one-third) of the total shelf life.
- Sales Deadline (Shelf-Removal Date): Once a retailer receives the goods, they must set a shelf-removal date.
- Crucial Distinction: Please do not misunderstand—the shelf-removal date is NOT the same as the expiration date!
Take a supermarket like Wellcome as an example. They might sell fresh produce that expires the next day. This is because certain products are intended for immediate consumption and cannot be returned. If they expire, they are treated as waste and destroyed on-site. In this scenario, there is no issue of “storing or transporting” expired goods for return.
🚫 The Myth of Returning Expired Goods
If a store cannot sell a product before its shelf-removal date, it should immediately enter a return or aggressive promotion process. This process must be completed BEFORE the product actually expires.
Strict food safety management dictates that returns to the manufacturer happen while the product is still legally “valid.” If the industry follows these rigorous protocols, they will never find themselves in violation of Article 15.
⚖️ Conclusion: Conscience vs. Regulation
The real problem isn’t the law; it’s how many food “experts” actually care about following it. Many people choose to side with a company’s self-proclaimed “conscience” over the laws designed to protect them. Remember the tragedy of the Formosa Fun Coast explosion: not breaking the law and not having an accident are two very different concepts.
The expiration date is for the customer, not the merchant! A product’s expiration date should never be used as the final deadline for the supply chain. Why? Here’s a hint: “It’s summer right now.” I’ll leave that as homework for you to consider the implications for food spoilage.
Ben Jai’s primary misunderstanding is treating the expiration date as the industry’s deadline to act. If the entire supply chain followed Article 15 properly, we wouldn’t see news stories about I-Mei illegally storing expired ingredients or selling products past their prime.
Food is indeed a business of conscience—but that conscience is proven by actions and compliance, not just words.