The measure requires certain egg vendors to mark egg containers with traceability labels, which tell consumers the name of the source farm. The labels also show a QR code, enabling consumers to access the egg traceability system website (http://www.tafte-poultry.org.tw) simply by scanning the QR code with mobile devices, allowing them to obtain relevant information about the source farm.

The Council pointed to increased consumer concern over food safety as the reason for the new rules, saying that eggs were a priority for improvement in this area and a crucial product in every citizen’s daily diet.

The Council hopes the new system will improve egg production management, allow it to track down unqualified eggs, and reduce the risk to consumers from chemical residues on the eggs.

The traceability plan will expand in future with databases and better inspection processes, and rolling out the system to more producers.

The Council further explained that there are an estimated 1,700 poultry farms keeping up to 3.6 million hens which supply between 1.8 to 1.9 million eggs each day. Currently, 63 per cent of all fresh bulk eggs are used mainly by breakfast businesses, catering services, bakeries and traditional markets, while washed eggs take 25 per cent, CAS washed eggs 4 per cent, and 8 per cent for processing respectively.

Traditionally bulk eggs were transported with plastic boxes and those boxes lacked any labelling of origin which increased the difficulty for tracing the sanitary and safety management of the source farm. However, this problem could be solved by the traceability system in the near future.