Food Sanitation Act

  The Food Sanitation Act covers the basic requirements and responsibilities for the hygienic and sanitary practices of the food manufacture, process, distribution and sales by establishing certain criteria and standards for foods, food additives, and food packaging materials sole in Korea. KFDA mainly is responsible for all the activities of food safety and consumption issues covering from policy making and the enforcement of the food safety controls systems to work properly.

  The most recent revision of the Food Sanitation Act reinforced its roles for emergency preparedness and prompt responses for foodborne disease outbreaks, inspection, certification of official laboratories, prompt recalls, and provisional prohibition actions for the sales of contaminated food, extensive monitoring for sound basis for risk assessment, establishment of the food safety information center, and encouraged enhanced consumer participation to promote consumer assurance.

  KFDA establishes various food standards and publishes "Food Code" for the quality and safety of foods, "Food Additives Code" for the standards and specifications of additives to be permitted for use in food, "Food Labelling Standards" to ensure the informed choices. Other rules and guidelines for import procedures and sanitary guidelines/standards such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) were also established by KFDA.

Risk-based Approaches

  KFDA exercises internationally harmonized risk based approaches namely "Risk Management, Risk Assessment, Risk Communication approaches". Policies and risk management decisions are made primarily based on the scientific evidences and extensive monitoring data, taking into consideration of other legitimate factors. The Food Sanitation Committee which is composed of experts from academia, industry, consumer groups jointly work together to develop and endorse the decisions of the various food safety issues and policies.

  The Food Safety Bureau works closely with the National Korea Food and Drug Safety Evaluation(NiFDS) for scientific evaluation and risk assessment for various contaminants, pesticides, veterinary drugs, microorganism and viruses, food packaging materials and other hazardous materials that might present in foods.

  Any unapproved or illegal uses of chemicals, drugs and other substances not permitted for uses in foods in Korea are prohibited for sales and subjected to administrative actions and criminal penalties. Extensive monitoring and testing of the food products are carried out routinely for the compliance of the relevant rules and regulations established by Food Sanitation Act and other relevant acts applied