Article 48

①A business operator that produces or processes dairy products, additives specified by the Prime Minister pursuant to the provisions of Article 12, or other food or additives that require sanitary consideration in particular in the process of production or processing, which are specified by Cabinet Order, must have a full-time food sanitation supervisor for each facility to supervise the production or processing in a sanitary manner; provided, however, that this does not apply to facilities which the business operator personally supervises as a food sanitation supervisor.

②If a business operator conducts production or processing business that requires having a full-time food sanitation supervisor pursuant to the provisions of the preceding paragraph at two or more facilities, and those facilities are adjacent to each other, it is sufficient to have one food sanitation supervisor for those two or more facilities, notwithstanding the provisions of that paragraph.

③A food sanitation supervisor must supervise persons who are engaged in the production or processing of food or additives at the facility to prevent violations of this Act, or orders or dispositions based on this Act concerning the food or additives that the food sanitation supervisor supervises.

④Beyond what is provided for in the preceding paragraph, a food sanitation supervisor must pay necessary attention to sanitation management method at the facility and other matters concerning food sanitation, in order to prevent violations of this Act or orders or dispositions based on this Act and prevent food sanitation hazards concerning the food or additives the food sanitation supervisor manages at the facility, and express necessary opinions to a business operator.

⑤When a food sanitation supervisor has been placed at a facility, a business operator must respect the opinions of the food sanitation supervisor expressed under the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

⑥Only persons falling under any of the following items may become a food sanitation supervisor:

⑦A person who possesses the qualifications of a food sanitation supervisor because the person falls under item (iv) of the preceding paragraph may become a food sanitation supervisor only at a facility for the same type of production business or processing business as the business for which the person has been engaged in sanitation management work for three years or more.

⑧When a business operator prescribed in paragraph (1) has placed a food sanitation supervisor or has become a food sanitation supervisor themselves at their facility, they must notify the prefectural governor that has jurisdiction over the locality of the facility of the name of the food sanitation supervisor or the fact that the business operator themselves have become a food sanitation supervisor and other matters specified by Order of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare within 15 days. The same applies when the business operator has changed the food sanitation supervisor.