Taiwan approves sweeteners one food at a time. Check yours before the container sails.
In August 2026 Taiwan's food regulator ordered a 2,004 kg shipment of Indonesian tapioca cake returned or destroyed. The reason was two sweeteners that the rules do not approve for that type of food.
You approve the sample, agree the price, and the container sails. At the port in Taiwan, a laboratory finds a sweetener that the rules do not allow in that food. The shipment cannot be sold. It goes back to the exporter or it is destroyed.
What happened in August 2026
On 18 August 2026 Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) listed a 2,004 kg shipment of tapioca cake from Indonesia as non-compliant. Border tests found cyclamate at 0.11 g/kg and saccharin at 0.03 g/kg. Neither is approved for this category of food, so the goods had to be returned to the exporter or destroyed.
It was not the first case. TVBS reported that border inspectors found the same two sweeteners in several Indonesian cassava and banana snack shipments earlier in 2026, and that the TFDA tested Indonesian biscuit shipments batch by batch for a period.
How Taiwan decides what is allowed
Taiwan uses a positive list. A food additive may be used only if the TFDA's food additive standards name it, name the foods it may go into, and give a maximum amount. If a food type does not appear under an additive's entry, that additive is not allowed in that food, even when it is allowed in another.
One test result therefore does not settle the question. A result showing that a sweetener is absent answers one question. A list showing that a sweetener is approved for your product answers a different one. A buyer needs both.
Five questions to ask any supplier
- What exactly is in this product? Ask for the full ingredient list in writing, including sweeteners, preservatives and colours.
- Under which food category will it be declared in Taiwan, and is each additive approved for that category, at what limit?
- Which laboratory tested it, with what method, on which batch and date?
- Is the product in the sample the same product as in the bulk order?
- Will the lab result come with each shipment, or only with the first sample?
A supplier who answers these in writing gives you something to hand to your customs broker. If a supplier cannot answer, you find out before you pay a deposit.
What we do
For selected products we hold a lab result showing no saccharin or cyclamate, the two sweeteners behind the cases above. We send it to any buyer who asks.
Before we quote for Taiwan, we ask which food category your importer will declare. The approved list depends on it, and we would rather settle it before shipping than at the port.
Send us the product and your destination country. We reply with the documents we hold for that product.