PETA Convinces Taiwan to Prioritize Non-Animal Testing Methods for Novel Foods

After hearing from PETA, Taiwan’s FDA, the government body responsible for regulating food safety, has updated its food safety rules for novel foods, prioritizing animal-free testing methods and allowing companies to use existing safety data of sufficiently similar ingredients instead of conducting cruel and pointless experiments on animals for the target ingredients. Historically, food safety evaluations meant months of pointless and deadly experiments on animals, but Taiwan is now taking the first steps toward cutting those cruel tests out and embracing state-of-the-art animal-free methods. The change comes after PETA scientists reviewed Taiwan’s draft regulation for novel food safety testing, submitted two rounds of detailed technical comments, and successfully persuaded the agency to include language prioritizing internationally recognized non-animal testing methods. PETA also convinced the agency to allow companies to use “bridged data”—existing safety data from similar ingredients—so companies don’t have to conduct redundant tests on animals.