(1) Reasons for Proposal
The Agricultural and Fishery Products Quality Control Act was partially amended (promulgated on June 12, 2018) to newly insert a period of validity (3 years) for safety inspection institutions of agricultural and fishery products, and add fishery products and the production environments thereof to the scope of targets subject to risk assessment. Accordingly, this Amendment prescribes detailed matters concerning the post-management of safety inspection institutions and fishery product risk assessments, etc.

(2) Major Provisions

A. Clarify that the scope of targets subject to safety inspections at the production stage shall include fishery products and any fishing grounds, water, materials, etc., used to produce the fishery products as specified in Article 61 of the Act (Article 8)

B. Change provisions to state that the designation of safety inspection institutions and the scope of their duties, etc., shall be publicly announced through the Official Gazette or a website, instead of a notice as per current provisions (Article 11)

C. Improve the post-management of safety inspection institution designation by prescribing separate reporting and acceptance procedures for important and minor changes to matters concerning safety inspection institution designation (Article 11-2, attached Forms 1 through 4, Article 16)

D. Prescribe application/processing procedures to extend the period of validity and application/processing procedures for re-designation in accordance with newly inserted provisions stipulating a period of validity (3 years) for the designation of a safety inspection institution (Article 11-3, Article 11-4)

E. Add fishery products and any fishing grounds, water, and materials used to produce the fishery products to the scope of targets subject to risk assessment in accordance with the newly inserted provisions concerning fishery product risk assessments and surveys; and add fishery resource centers and fisheries research and technology centers, etc., of local governments to the scope of research institutes that may be requested by the Minister of Food and Drug Safety to conduct risk assessments (Article 14)

F. Specify that fishery products and any fishing grounds, water, materials, etc., used to produce the fishery products shall be subject to harmful substance surveys (Article 15)