The government may create an independent food safety agency tasked with issuing recommendations to the farm and health ministries to counter growing public distrust of the ministries' handling of mad cow disease, according to a draft government plan.
The new agency would comprise around five experts and would be independent from and outrank government offices, according to a copy of the draft obtained by Kyodo News.
It would have jurisdiction over every food category -- excluding medicinal foods -- and would be charged with determining whether a given food poses a threat to the human body, the draft says.