The Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Taiwan adopted the Alcohol Quality Certification System in 2003 in order to protect the safety of citizen in wine consuming and promote the development of domestic alcoholic beverage industry. The system aims to improve the quality of domestic manufactured alcoholic beverages, and protect the common interests of the manufacturers, dealers, and consumers. Applicants for the certification must go through a strict scrutinization which includes qualification, on-site evaluation, random sample inspection, implementing from source of materials, manufacturing process, and hygiene inspection of the alcoholic beverages. Applicants must receive approval from the MOF Alcohol Quality Certification System Technical Committee before they may use the “W” certification mark. The “W” certification mark used for “MOF Alcohol Quality Certification, has been registered by MOF to the Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs. The MOF hopes to support the upgrade and the development of the domestic alcoholic beverage industry, by providing guidance and implementing the certification system.
There are stricter standards for all alcoholic beverages in this certification system than ordinary regulations. At present, there are nine categories including rice spirits and cooking alcohols, sorghum spirits, grape wine, fruit wine, fruit reprocessed alcoholic beverages, grain spirits other than rice spirits and sorghum spirits, beer, alcoholic beverages brewed form grains, and other reprocessed alcoholic beverages. For more information of certificated alcoholic beverages, please visit the “Alcohol Quality Certification System” section in the website of the National Treasury Administration, MOF (http://www.nta.gov.tw/).
