단순가공식품 안전 관리를 위한 법제도적 전략- 유럽연합의 식품안전 정책을 참고하여 -

Apparently, there have been no reports of mass food poisoning cases caused by simple-processed foods in Korea, but various cases of mass food poisoning caused by simple-processed foods occur in a row in foreign countries. In the countries which concerned accidents occur continually, there is a culture of eating foods that one does not need to cook, that is, fruits or vegetables for salads etc. However, in Korea, as the preference for simple meals(namely, simple-processed food) has increased recently, the trend to eat salads or fruits is emerging in earnest. Thus, it is high time that we should regulate overall process of the simple-processed foods production and circulation and so on. However, it should be considered that the policy to enhance food safety focuses on regulation rather than support or sponsorship for the food safety. This is because it is more important than anything else to manage and regulate the circulation as well as the production and manufacturing of hazardous foods. In fact, the several Acts relating to Food Safety have regulative means to protect the lives and health of the people by securing food safety, and more specifically, it provides a great deal of actions to regulate precess of the production, manufacture, and circulation of harmful foods. However, even if the necessity of regulation for simple-processed foods can be recognized, it should be considered that more relaxed regulatory measures such as certification are required due to the fact that it is difficult to argue that simple-processed food is hazardous food. In particular, considering the case of the European Union that is seeking strong regulations on processed foods and at the same time securing regulatory measures for raw food and simple-processed food (in other words, European Union has a separate certification procedure to improve the safety of simple-processed foods), there is implications for us to adopt the certification system as the relaxed regulative means. Therefore, in order to regulate simple-processed foods in earnest, it is required to include the overall measures related to the certification process for the food safety, which can be seen as a method of minimize infringement on related private interests, in concerned Acts such as the Food Sanitation Act and Framework Act on Food Safety and so on.