Standards for Food Factory Buildings and Equipment: What a Food Factory Application Must Meet

What These Standards Cover

The legal basis for the Standards for Food Factory Buildings and Equipment (食品工廠建築及設備設廠標準) is Article 10, Paragraph 2 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation. They were established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the current text found at the time of writing was last amended on September 27, 2018. They set the minimum thresholds for food factory buildings and equipment; under Article 15 of the Factory Management Act (工廠管理輔導法), factories subject to establishment standards may not register or change their registration if their equipment doesn't meet the standards.

Article 2 of GHP also reminds that businesses with food factories must meet these factory standards for their buildings, facilities, and equipment, in addition to GHP.

Basic Common Standards: Premises and Buildings

All food factories must meet Chapter 2. Key points:

• Premises (Article 5): Drains flow freely; open ground is paved with concrete or asphalt or landscaped so there's no blowing dust; employee dormitories are completely separated from work areas with separate entrances; pest control is in place.
• Area separation (Article 6): Raw material handling, processing and preparation, packing rooms, warehouses, changing rooms, toilets, and so on must be set up individually or effectively separated if their use or cleanliness differs.
• Walls and pillars: Walls in raw material handling and processing areas are white or light-colored, and at least up to 1 meter above the floor are made of non-absorbent, impermeable, easy-to-clean materials with smooth, crack-free surfaces.
• Floors: Non-absorbent, impermeable, acid- and alkali-resistant, and abrasion resistant, with a good drainage slope.
• Ceilings: White or light-colored and easy to clean; no condensation directly above exposed food.
• Lighting: At least 200 lux on work or preparation surfaces and at least 100 lux on machinery surfaces.
• Ventilation and openings: Vents have pest-prevention measures; enclosed processing or packing rooms must be air-conditioned.
• Warehouses: Separate raw material and finished product warehouses, with the floor inside higher than outside.
• Toilets: Must not open directly onto food work areas and must display a sign to wash hands after using the toilet.

Basic Equipment Requirements

Article 7 is the one most directly related to machinery, and it has two parts:

1. Design: The design and construction of production machinery and equipment must prevent harm to food quality and hygiene, be easy to clean, sanitize, and inspect, and have structures that keep lubricants, metal fragments, wastewater, and the like out of products.
2. Materials: Equipment and utensils that may contact food must be made of materials that don't produce or leach toxins, are odorless, non-absorbent, corrosion resistant, and able to withstand repeated cleaning and sanitizing, and materials prone to contact corrosion must be avoided.

When buying an encrusting machine, divider, or bun machine, these two points are the most practical checklist: can the contact parts be removed for washing, are there dead spots that can't be cleaned, how far are the lubrication points from the food, and what material are the contact surfaces. For material details, see Materials in Contact With Food.

Specialized Standards for Frozen Food Factories

Article 4 lists 11 types of specialized food factories that, in addition to Chapter 2, must meet the corresponding articles in Chapter 3; frozen food factories are among them. Under Article 9, frozen food factories must have freezing production equipment; in addition, as needed, they should have equipment for washing raw materials, blanching and cooling, refrigerated trucks able to keep product at −18°C or below, cleaning and sanitizing equipment, metal or other foreign matter detection equipment, and testing equipment for residual chlorine, microorganisms, and product temperature. Article 19 states that if a specialized food factory doesn't have the required equipment, it must provide a reasonable explanation and related documents.

Do the Standards Apply to Small Factories?

Article 3 of the standards says that food factories under these standards must register as factories according to law. Whether you need factory registration depends on Article 3 of the Factory Management Act and the Standards for Determining the Scope, Floor Area, Power Capacity, and Thermal Scale of Factories Engaged in Manufacturing and Processing (工廠從事物品製造加工範圍及面積電力容量熱能規模認定標準, last amended December 21, 2018):

• Food manufacturing falls within the scope of manufacturing, but cases such as "making and retailing bread, noodles, tofu, or candy within the same street address" are excluded.
• Factories subject to establishment standards by law (which includes food factories) count as factory scale if the factory floor area is 50 square meters or more, or the combined horsepower and electric heating is 2.25 kilowatts or more.
• Businesses below this scale may still apply for registration voluntarily under Article 3, Paragraph 3 of the Factory Management Act.

Under Article 10 of the Factory Management Act, factories at this scale must complete registration before manufacturing or processing; unregistered production will be ordered to stop under Article 30 and register within a deadline, and failure to do so is punishable by a fine of NT$20,000 to NT$100,000. Whether you meet the threshold should be calculated from your actual floor area and equipment capacity; if necessary, confirm with the factory registration office of your city or county government.

FAQ

Q: When registering a food factory, what are the most basic equipment requirements?
A: Article 7 of the standards requires equipment to be easy to clean, sanitize, and inspect and to keep lubricants and metal fragments out, with food contact materials that don't leach toxins and are non-absorbent, corrosion resistant, and able to withstand repeated cleaning and sanitizing.

Q: What equipment does a frozen dumpling factory need?
A: Under Article 9 of the standards, frozen food factories must have freezing production equipment; other items such as metal detection, refrigerated trucks, and testing equipment are required as needed.

Q: How large does a food processing site have to be to require factory registration?
A: Under the scale determination standards, factories subject to establishment standards count as factory scale if their floor area is 50 square meters or more, or their combined horsepower and electric heating is 2.25 kilowatts or more.

Q: How bright must work surface lighting be?
A: Article 6 of the standards requires at least 200 lux on work or preparation surfaces and at least 100 lux on machinery surfaces.