Global Food

CFDA Issued the Registration List of First Batch of Formula Food for Special Medical Purposes and Adjusted the Related Transitional Period

On November 20, 2017, the China Food and Drug Administration approved the registration of 3 formula foods for special medical purposes form two enterprises and published. The formula food for special medical purposes shall be registered by food and drug administration departments under the State of Council according to Article 80 of the Food Safety Law.   On March 7, 2016, China Food and Drug Administration issued the “Administrative measures for the registration of formula food for special medical purposes” (No. 24 of China Food and Drug Administration).   On June 24, 2016, the China Food and Drug Administration issued an announcement about the transitional period for registration administration of formula food for special medical purposes (No. 119, 2016), which gave a transitional period till January 1, 2018.   On July 14, 2017, CFDA issued the related auxiliary documents of “Administrative Measures for Registration of FSMP” including trial editions of four document, i.e. items and requirements of application materials, requirements of food label and specification, requirements of stability research and main on-site inspection points & judgment principle.   On September 5, 2017, “Items and requirements of application materials for registration of formula food for special medical purposes (trial) (2017 revised edition)” and “Stability research requirements for formula food for special medical purposes (trial) (2017 revised edition)” (2017 revised edition) were issued.   On November 16, 2017, CFDA and AQSIQ jointly issued the announcement about adjusting the transitional period for registration of FSMP (No. 139 of 2017), which prolonged the transitional period stipulated in Announcement No. 119 of 2016 by one year till January 1, 2019. Since January 1, 2019, the FSMP produced within the territory of our country or imported to our territory shall obtain the registration certificate of FSMP with registration number indicated in the label and specification. Where the date of manufacture is before December 31 of 2018 (included), it can be sold until the expiration date within the territory of our country.

Interpretation on Newly Revised “Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China”

On November 4, 2017, the newly revised “Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China” was approved on the 30th Meeting of the Twelfth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, president Xi Jinping signed the Presidential Decree No. 78 to publish it. The revised standardization law will come into effect from January 1, 2018. Foodmate conducted interpretation and analysis on the revised contents of this time for professional reference. I The legal status of group standard has been defined   The classification of standard of our country was adjusted in this revision. Group standards were added on the basis of national standards, industry standards, local standards, enterprise standards.   With regard to the adoption of group standards, the revised standardization law defines that: group standards are adopted by the members of the group through agreement or voluntarily adopted by the community in accordance with the provisions of the group. But at present, there are also group standards formulated by a few associations are not allowed to be used at will. Thus, in the use of group standards, the enterprises need to pay attention to the issuance agency of this group standard, and know whether there are restrictive provisions in the administrative measures of group standard issued by this agency, and adopt after obtaining the approval if necessary.   II The mandatory industry standards and local standards has been cancelled   The revision defines the scope of mandatory standards: only mandatory national standards are allowed to be formulated, and the mandatory industry standards and mandatory local standards that being existed have been canceled. At the same time, the state is also carrying out standard clean-up and consolidation, of which many mandatory standards have been abolished and transformed.   It is worth mentioning that this revision also defines that mandatory national standards are issued through the approval of State Council or issued through authorization of State Council. In addition, according to Paragraph 5 of Article 10 of the revised Standardization Law: "Where there are provisions in respect to mandatory standard in laws and administrative regulations and the State Council's decision, such provisions shall be followed”. Therefore, the issuance and implementation of the current local food safety standards will not be affected . III The articles of immediate abolition has been deleted   Foodmate noticed that this revision deleted the Article 6 of the former Standardization Law regarding the articles of immediate abolition.   Some standard issuance units, for the moment, have inconsistent understanding on the immediate abolition. Some standards shall be abolished since the issuance date of announcement, instead of abolishing the previous standards after the implementation of the standards, moreover, the corresponding national standards of some standards have already been issued and implemented before the issuance of abolition of some standards.   On the other hand, from the reply Ministry of Commerce's public comment, the Ministry of Commerce thought that the dried meat floss industry standard shall be abolished when the corresponding national standards are issued, and there is no description like “abolished from the date of the announcement” in No.20 announcement.   In conclusion, can we take it as agreed that: in order to determine whether the standard is abolished or not, we only need to check the abolishment and review announcement of the issuance unit of relevant standard instead of checking the issuance of the corresponding national standard which can cause the immediate abolition? It is unclear of the specific reasons for the deletion of this Article.   IV The free publicity of mandatory standard text has been defined, and the State promotes the free publicity of recommended standard text   Article 17 of the revised Standardization Law clearly defines that: mandatory standard texts shall be made public to the public for free. The state promotes free publication of recommended standard texts to the public.   In February 2017, the Office of the State Council Standardization Coordination and Inter-ministerial Joint Conference printed and distributed the “Implementation plan about promoting the public of national standards” The plan clearly defined that the texts of recommended national standards shall be made to the public by stages. All the national standards will be basically made to public freely by 2020.

Analysis on the Second Extension of Transitional Period Policy of Retail and Import Supervision of Cross-border Electronic Commerce

On September 20, 2017, Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council, the meeting decided to extend the transitional period policy of retail and import supervision of cross-border electronic commerce to the end of 2018 and speed up the improvement of the relevant system. The news immediately aroused widespread concern in the industry. The policy document on retail and import refers to the “Notice of Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs and State Administration of Taxation about the taxation policy of retail and import of cross-border electronic commerce (No.18, 2016 of Ministry of Finance and General Administration of Customs), and no clear documents have been issued by the State Council and relevant ministries, it is not clear what specific policies are included in the transitional period, especially the special food as infant formula milk powder involved in the “Announcement about publishing the commodity list of retail and import of cross-border electronic commerce” and “Announcement about publishing the commodity list (second batch) of retail and import of cross-border electronic commerce” which is also the positive list of commodity referred in the industry, according to the provisions of China Food and Drug Administration, from January 1, 2018, product formula of domestic and imported infant formula milk powder shall be registered through the China Food and Drug Administration. The remarks in the “Commodity list of retail and import of cross-border electronic commerce” issued by Ministry of Finance defined that the cross-border e-commerce products are also applicable. So the industry is in urgent need of the document issued by relevant regulatory authorities to clear and definite, if the registration transition period was unchanged, the development of cross-border electronic commerce of infant formula milk powder may be affected. Extension of supervision transitional period for one year gave a certain time to the practitioner of cross-border electronic commerce to adjust suitably in short term, but it cannot solve the fundamental problem, once the transitional period is over, the final policy will be released, cross-border electronic commerce will face the problems of “positive list”, “Single quota of 2000 yuan, and annual quota of 20000” again, etc.; in the long term, although there are some uncertainties, the changes will not affect the overall trend, from the meeting of the State Council we can see that the country is supporting the development of cross-border electronic commerce. If there were adjustment in the future, adjustment may mainly focus on the taxation, category of list and buying quota. Foodmate will continue to focus on how it will change. It is known that the relevant supervision authorities of cross-border electronic commerce are Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, AQSIQ, General Administration of Customs and so on. The Foodmate reminds all cross-border electronic commerce companies to keep a close eye on the latest policy developments issued by these departments, including but not limited to positive lists, negative lists (mainly referred to the listed products in “Work specification of business entity of cross-border e-commerce and commodity filing management” issued by AQSIQ”), tariffs, quotas and other types of dynamic conditions.

Formula Registration in the Process of Revising Infants & Young Children Formula Food Standard

Revision background: In recent years, infants & young children formula products have received extensive attention in both China and the world. As the study of nutrition science deepens, organizations have successively carried out the revision work for infants & young children formula product standards in recent years. For example, the Codex Alimentarius Commission started revision work for the older infants & young children formula food standard (Codex Stan 156-1987) in 2011, EU issued regulations to modify the nutritional ingredients in infants & young children formula food in 2016, the United States revised the selenium content in infants & young children formula food, Australia and New Zealand is also soliciting opinions on revision related to infants & young children formula standard. China released infants & young children formula food standards (GB 10765-2010, GB 10767-2010) very early. In order to promote infants & young children formula food more scientific and safer, further implement the requirements of “Most stringent standard”, and enhance the scientificity and safety of our infants & young children formula food standards, the General Office of National Health and Family Planning Commission released the “National food safety standard project plan in 2016 (the second batch)” on December 22, 2016 including revision plan for infants, older infants and young children formula food standards. Revision trend: According to the introduction of China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, this revision work of infants & young children formula food standard mainly refers to the standards of Codex Alimentarius Commission, and also imitates the infants & young children formula food standards and regulations of EU, the United States and Australia, etc.. At present, the revision work of standard mainly includes the following aspects:       ①The standard framework is changed, and the original standard “Older infants and young children formula” (GB 10767) is divided into “Older infants formula food” standard and “Young children formula food” standard.       ②All nutrient contents were reevaluated. For infants formula food, the majority of the nutrient content currently meets the needs of infants and will not incur excess risk, so it is recommended to maintain; For older infants formula food, some data in the existing standards shall be revised according to the latest scientific evidence, the lower limit values of some nutrients need to be adjusted, and the upper limit values of most nutrients need to be set to meet the needs of infants at this age group; For young children formula food, put forward scientific suggestive value as far as possible according to the present nutritional status of young children in China based on the existing evidence. For example, reduce the protein content range, and regulate the lower limit range of some certain nutrients (such as DHA).         ③Pay attention to the revision progress of International code and the standards of each country in real time. The Codex Alimentarius standard for nutrient contents in older infant formula food (6-12 months old) has been basically completed in revision, which reduces the content of energy and protein, and adjusts the content range of nutrients.       ④The standard revision matches with the current registration requirements; Since many enterprises, taking into account the detection and shelf life attenuation and other factors, make the target nutrient content close to the larger value, China National Center for food Safety Risk Assessment pointed out that the minimum value in standard rather than the maximum value shall be taken as the designed goal in order to avoid potential security risks. only the minimum value shall be set according to the requirements, while the maximum value is the index set to prevent excess and control safety. Impact on infants & young children formula milk powder manufacturing enterprises: In the perspective of the revision trend of new standard, the scope of some nutrient content will be changed, protein content will be reduced, and the upper or lower limit of some nutrients will also be defined, so many companies worry about whether it is needed to adjust the registered formula or reapply for formula registration. On August 26, 2017, China National Center for food Safety Risk Assessment said that the release and implementation of the new standards would be completed from the revision to administrative licensing of current standard in the next two years. In view that overseas formula registration requires one year, the time for preparing the second declaration of formula may be shortened to half a year. The infants & young children formula food manufacturers shall follow the revision progress of standard, adjust the existing formulas in a timely manner, and rapidly response to the new standard, which is expected to register smoothly during the transition period of implementing the new standard. As overseas enterprises need a slightly longer time to declare, it will be better for them to do research on formula improvement based on the trend of standard revision in the next 2~3 years. While it may after all be accepted as a good plan for the infants & young children enterprises, which have not yet declared for formula registration to register formula after adjusting formula in accordance with the revision trend of new standards. In addition, there are a variety of micronutrients in infants & young children formula milk powder, and different testing methods may lead to differences in product quality determination results, so the detection bias in the formula design process shall be balanced.

Chocolate in China—Catch Up the Opportunities and Reduce Losses

Since 2015, the chocolate import in China continues to grow strongly all the time, and has achieved 19.347 billion in sales, with year-on-year growth up to 12%, and has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 12.73% since 2010. With the rise of Chinese consumption level, the consumption quantity of chocolate in China continues to increase, and import quantity will also gradually increase. During February 14 Western Valentine’s Day, and the traditional Chinese Double-Seventh Day which is considered as Chinese Valentine’s Day, the boy will give his loved girl chocolate as a gift, therefore, these festivals constitute the emerging chocolate consumption season in China in recent years. There are important reference values for the overseas chocolate enterprises to successfully export their products to China if they understand the Chinese standard laws and regulations of chocolate and the relevant previous food safety incidents and import & export notification cases. This article briefly summarizes the relevant knowledge of Chinese chocolate import. For more details, please see “Series of China imported Food Manuals – Chocolate” compiled by Foodmate. Chocolate is not included in the registration list of oversea food enterprises registration in China, so the import process of chocolate is basically the same as that of other ordinary foods, including filing of importer & exporter, preparation of Chinese labels and other materials for inspection submission, implementation of inspection and quarantine and other operations, while no more detailed description is shown here. The Chinese product standard related to chocolate are mainly GB 9678.2-2014 “National food safety standard Chocolate, chocolate and chocolate products with cocoa butter alternatives” and GB/T 19343-2016 “Chocolate and chocolate products, chocolate and chocolate products with cocoa butter alternatives”, the former of which is a mandatory national food safety standard specifying the food safety requirements that the chocolate products must meet, including basic requirements for sensory, microbiological, contaminant, food additives, etc.; the latter of which is a recommended product standard specifying the classification of chocolate and its products, raw & auxiliary materials requirements and physicochemical indicators and other quality requirements on the basis of food safety requirements. In the standard chocolate and its products are mainly divided into such four categories including chocolate, chocolate products, chocolate and chocolate products with cocoa butter alternatives. It shall be noted that Chinese Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureaus carry out inspections during the import process mainly according to the national food safety standards. In the past few years, there are no major food safety incidents of chocolate, in July 2016, a test from a German non-governmental food inspection organization made the world famous chocolate brand Ferrero into a carcinogenic trouble, Kinder chocolate was accused of containing carcinogens “aromatic hydrocarbons mineral oil”. Mineral oil is a common problem across the industry, at present most countries and regions at home and abroad have not specified the limits in the food, therefore, Foodmate considers that, although the event caused widespread attention of public, it won’t have a great impact on Chinese imports of chocolate. In addition, in China, the chocolate event that media reported mainly include foreign body contamination, living insects, etc., the recall events of foreign chocolate are mostly due to unlabeled allergens. Currently allergen identification is voluntary in China, however, Foodmate gets the news that GB 7718 (recently begun to be revised) has confirmed that allergens shall be mandatorily labeled in the future, and this point need to be paid attention. In addition, biological contamination, heavy metals exceeding the limit, additives usage out of scope are also the common problems of imported chocolate. According to the information obtained from the Foodmate sampling inspection enquiry & analysis system, we can see that the labeling is the main reason for the non-conformity in Chinese domestic sampling inspection in recent years, followed by food additives and microorganism; the unqualified products of imported chocolate mainly come from Belgium, Italy, Vietnam, Switzerland, South Korea. Unqualified products form these five countries accounted for more than half of the total number of imported unqualified chocolate; labeling is also the main reason for non-conformity, followed by food additives and other reasons. It can be seen that the importers and exporters of chocolate shall pay enough attention to the issue of label identification.

Chinese Health Food Market Will Well Develop Under the New Registration and Filing System

China health food market is undoubtedly seductive to both domestic and overseas health food enterprises. According to the CFDA’s statistical data, by the end of 2016, about 16000 health foods have been registered in China, which involved with more than 2500 production enterprises, with an output value of about 400 billion Yuan. According to Roland Berger survey in 2016, China health food market gets large and grows faster with an annual growth rate of 13% from 2005 to 2015, which ranks as the first in the world, but is still much lower than US, including the proportion of sticky users and sum of consumption per capita, etc. That means China still has a huge rising space in health food market. From consumers’ perspective, senior citizen is expected to reach 248 million in 2020, which is the main health food consumption population. Secondly, with the improvement of living standards and aggravation of environmental pollution, Chinese gradually increase the health consciousness for themselves which is also the driving factor of the health food consumption. From national level, government issued several positive policies, which will be beneficial to the healthy development of health food industry, like “Plan of ‘Health China 2030’ ”, “Notice about printing and distributing the ‘13th Five-Year’ healthy aging planning”, and “Notice about printing and distributing the national nutrition plan (2017 - 2030)”, which pointed out that government are making efforts to develop health food, nutritional fortified food, duel-protein food and other new nutritional & health food. Under the positive regulation structure, China food nutrition health industry will surely receive more attentions and grow more vigorous. Accompanies with the promising future, there are also problems existed in China heath food market like lots of health food imported without authorization, exaggerated functional claims, illegally advertisement, etc. In an interview on CFDA’s director Wang Hong in August of 2017, he said that, the Department Of Special Food Registration will promote health food filing system and further promote research on health food claims and evaluation methods.  In order to regulate and promote health food industry, CFDA issued a series of regulations like “Administrative Measures for Registration and Filing Management of Health Food”, “Opinions about further strengthening the administration work on health food (exposure draft)”, and documents related to health food filing, which opened the filing management system. Meanwhile, in order to strengthen the administration on health food, CFDA set up the Department Of Special Food Registration and launched the new registration management system. So far, a single registration system is replaced by registration and filing dual system, which will simplify the application process as well as shorten the duration. After registration and filing dual system has been comprehensively established, 771 pieces of review opinions were successively issued including new product registration, alteration registration, technology transfer, etc.. FoodMate kindly remind that nutrient supplements (which need to be filed) enterprises shall kick off the filing process as soon as possible. Whereas, for health food with function claims, there are still uncertainties due to function directory has not been released yet, relevant enterprises are suggested to closely follow up the latest changes, and prepare registration dossiers actively.

Summarization on the Memorabilia for Registration of Infants and Young Children Formula Milk Powder

In the evening of August 3, the China Food and Drug Administration published the list of the first batch of enterprises and formula passed the formula registration application, including 89 infants and young children formula milk powder product formula of 22 companies, which indicates that the new policy is finally launched. The publicity of the first batch of list encouraged the registered milk industry greatly, and it is also believed that the second and the third batch of list will soon be announced. Foodmate.net summarized the memorabilia of infants and young children formula milk powder registration, to review the ages on registration of the infants and young children formula milk powder in joint endeavors with everyone together. (1) On April 24, 2015: “Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China” was issued, and implemented from October 1, 2015. The Article 81 of it clearly defined that: The product formula of infants and young children formula milk powder shall be registered by the food and drug administration departments under the State Council. The formula R & D report and other materials indicating the scientificity and safety of the formula shall be submitted at registration. This clearly specified at the first time that the infants and young children formula milk powder needs to be registered. (2) On June 6, 2016: China Food and Drug Administration (hereinafter referred to as CFDA) published the “Administrative measures for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder” (Decree No. 26 of CFDA), and implemented from October 1, 2016. (3) On June 13, 2016: CFDA released the interpretation document for “Administrative measures for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder”. (4) On September 30, 2016: CFDA released the “Announcement about implementing transition period on the product formula registration for infants and young children formula milk powder formula” (No. 160, 2016), which made it clear that the infants and young children formula milk powder approved to be produced and sold within the territory of our country or exported to the territory of our country before January 1, 2018can be sold till the end of shelf life. However, the infants and young children formula milk powder produced within the territory of our country or exported to the territory of our country must obtain the product formula registration certificate of infants and young children formula milk powder according to law from January 1, 2018. (5) On October 29, 2016: CFDA released the “Items and requirements of application materials for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial)” and “Key points and judgment principle of on-site inspection for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial)”, which stipulated the key points and judgment principle of on-site inspection for formula registration application materials at the first time in details. In addition, CFDA also released the interpretation on the two auxiliary documents. (6) On January 26, 2017: After the auxiliary document of formula registration (trial) is released, in order to carry out the registration work in a sequential, reasonable and scientific manner, CFDA solicited public opinions on the related auxiliary documents including the “Technical guidelines on labeling normalization for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial) (exposure draft)” and “Technical guidelines on stability study for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial) (exposure draft)” of “Administrative measures for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder”. (7) On May 23, 2017: In order to further promote the registration work of infants and young children formula milk powder, CFDA released the “Items and requirements of application materials for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial) (revised edition of 2017)” on the basis of soliciting public opinions, and released the interpretation on the trial document (revised edition of 2017) at the same time, to further make a detailed description on the requirements of materials. (8) On May 24, 2017: CFDA released the “Technical guidelines on stability study for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial)” to further strengthen the management on the product formula registration label of infants and young children formula milk powder, so as to better carry out the registration work of infants and young children formula milk powder. (9) On May 25, 2017: CFDA released the interpretation on the “Technical guidelines on labeling normalization for product formula registration of infants and young children formula milk powder (trial) (exposure draft)”. (10) On July 31, 2017: Health Food Review Center held the infants and young children formula milk powder import business forum in Shanghai, answered to the “Frequently asked questions” on registration, and reminded enterprises to submit materials as soon as possible before the end of September at the latest. It was pointed out at the meeting that the Review Center will receive 20 to 30 pieces of materials every day that are all from domestic enterprises, while the overseas enterprises submitting materials still remain at 26, so the overseas enterprises shall speed up. (11) On August 3, 2017: CFDA has approved the registration application on the product formula of 89 infants and young children formula milk powder for 22 enterprises, and issued the first batch of approved list of enterprises accordingly. There are 17 domestic enterprises in the 22 companies including Beingmate, Yashili, Mengniu, Feihe, Yili, Biostime, Junlebao, Sujia, Red Star and CHF, etc., and the other five companies are from overseas, i.e. Nestle, Wyeth , Abbott, FrieslandCampina and Mead Johnson. The first batch of “Published” enterprises can relieve temporarily, while more dairy companies still need to continue to make efforts. According to the Review Center, about 665 registration applications have been received at present, of which domestic milk enterprises account for 79%. Foodmate.net reminds that small & medium-sized milk enterprises and imported milk enterprises need to apply for registration as soon as possible, abandon the wait-and-see attitude by luck or placing hope on transitional period, and pay close attention to complete registration work before September so as to make it before January 1, 2018.

Interpretation on the “National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030)” in the View of Standards and Regulations

The General Office of the State Council printed and distributed the “National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030)” (hereafter referred to as “Plan”) on July 13, 2017, which separately specified the national nutrition plan of 2020 and 2030 and proposed to promote the nutrition legislation and policy research: carry out the research on related legislation of nutrition, and further strengthen the nutrition laws & regulations system; research and formulate the clinical nutrition management, nutrition monitoring management and other rules & regulations, and establish and improve the related policies of nutrition & health. The Standards & Regulations Center of Foodmate briefly interpreted on the contents related to the “Plan” in the view of standards and regulations for reference. Formulation and revision of standards related to nutrition It is proposed in the “Plan” that the standard system shall be strengthened. Foodmate summarized and collected the formulation and revision of related standards as follows: 1. Formulate and revise the referential dietary nutrient ADI, dietary investigation method, population malnutrition risk screening, dietary guidance for diabetic, population nutrition investigation work specification of Chinese residents and other industrial standards. 2. Research and formulate the general rules of nutritious foods for elder population, nutrition label of catering foods and other standards. 3. Accelerate to revise the general standard for the labeling of prepackaged foods, standard for the use of food nutritional fortification substance, infant formula food and complementary food standard and other important national food safety standards. 4. Further research and improve the standard of food for special medical purpose. 5. Revise the national standard and industrial standard related to sport nutritious foods in a timely manner, upgrade the research & development capability of sport nutritious food technology, and promote the industry development. According to the news on the website of China National Center For Food Safety Risk Assessment (hereafter referred to as Assessment Center), the formulation and revision of some standards mentioned above is in progress. The Assessment Center held the “National nutrition plan——Seminar on nutrition-related standards” in Beijing on March 10, 2017. The meeting reported the latest domestic and overseas progress, formulation of standard, revision thought, work carried out of the “General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods”, “Standard for the Use of Food Nutritional Fortification Substance”, “Operation Guidance for Nutrition of Student Meal”, nutritious foods for elders, the serial standards of infants & young children formula food and the serial standards of foods for special medical purpose as well as the establishment situation of standard coordination group. In addition to the related national food safety standard listed above, the local administrative departments will release some auxiliary documents besides the released ones. Along with the concerns on the national nutrition in China, it is believed that more national standard and industrial standard related to nutrition will be published. For the domestic and overseas enterprises related to food, it is very important to follow the latest laws and regulations in time. Foodmate will continue to update. Further complete the list of articles that are both food and traditional Chinese medicinal materials in China It is promoted in this “Plan” that the list of articles that are both food and traditional Chinese medicinal materials in China shall be further completed. It is known that the National Health and Family Planning Commission released the exposure draft of this list in 2013, which has not been officially released at present. The “Administrative Measures for the Catalogue of Articles that are Traditionally both Foods and Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials” (Exposure draft) released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2014 has not been officially released and implemented at present either. Foodmate will continue to pay close attention to the announcement situation and share it in the first place.

Summarization on Food Standards and Food-related Standards to be Implemented from July of 2017

79 food standards and food-related standards will be implemented from July of 2017. Foodmate collected and summarized related standards according to the Notice of AQSIQ about releasing the fourth batch of entry-exit inspection and quarantine industrial standards in 2016 (141 items), Announcement of AQSIQ about approving to release 163 national standards such as “Quality management systems-Fundamentals and vocabulary”, Announcement No. 23, 2016 of SAC about releasing 292 national standards and 23 national standards (foreign language edition) such as “Food industry enterprises integrity management system”, and Announcement No. 2, 2017 of MIIT about approving to release 426 industrial standards such as “Fruit & vegetable fiber”, including 15 recommendatory national standards and 64 industrial standards. There are 11 newly-added ones and 4 ones substituting original standards in the 15 recommendatory national standards to be implemented. There are 42 recommendatory import & export industrial standards (including 35 related industrial standards about exporting to other countries from China, the list of which will not be displayed in the summarization) and 22 recommendatory light-industrial standards in the 64 industrial standards to be implemented. Foodmate hereby reminds related domestic and overseas enterprises to carefully investigate the differences between old standards and new ones, optimize production process according to new standards in a timely manner, adjust quality controlling system of enterprise, and conduct related training for personnel at the same time to ensure that the quality of product is in compliance with Chinese national standards and promote the market competitiveness of products in China. The food enterprises exporting commodities to China shall get acknowledge of the new requirements of Chinese standards in time, strengthen quality safety controlling of product, comprehensively get acquaintance of changing on requirements of related standards and detailed deadline for implementation, update test requirements of products in a timely manner, and ensure that the products in in conformity with the mandatory requirements of Chinese national standards; at the same time, pay close attention to the food risk warning information in China, strengthen the communication and coordination with the local inspection & quarantine departments in China or cooperate with food consultation agency in China, to reduce the non-conformity risk of products exported to China. Food standards and food-related standards to be implemented from July of 2017

NHFPC Approved Ten New Kinds of Novel Foods

On June 13, 2017, National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NHFPC) issued the announcement on approval of safety assessment material review of ten new kinds of novel foods including Shea butter, etc. Foodmate summarized relevant information as follows: List of ten kinds of novel foods 1. Shea butter (Sheanut oil, Shea oil) Source: kernel of Butyrospermum parkii Limited Applications: confectionary, ice cream, bakery, frying oil. 2. Zeaxanthin Source: Tagetes erecta L. Principal component: (3R, 3’R)-dihydroxy-β-carotene CAS: 144-68-3 Limited Daily Intake: ≤4mg/day (expressed as (3R, 3’R)-dihydroxy-β-carotene) Note: the usage scope excludes infants and young children food. 3. Borojo powder Source: fruit of Borojo patinoi Cuatrec Limited Daily Intake: ≤30g/day Note: it is not suitable for consumption by infants and young children. The labels and instructions shall be indicated with unsuitable crowds. 4. Sialic acid Structural formula: Limited Daily Intake: ≤500 mg/day Processing: fermented on food grade dextrose and corn pulp by E. coli strain SA-8 5. Cis-15-Tetracosenoic Acid Source: rapeseed oil Limited Daily Intake: ≤300mg/day Limited Applications: edible oil, fat and emulsified fat product, solid beverage, dairy, candy, instant food. Note: it is not suitable for consumption by infants and young children. The labels and instructions shall be indicated with unsuitable crowds. 6. Aqueous Extract of Seed of Broccoli Source: seed of Brassica oleracea var. italica Plenck Limited Daily Intake: ≤1.8g/day Note: the usage scope excludes infants and young children food. 7. Rice bran fatty alcohol Source: Rice bran Principal components: octacosanol, triacontanol, dotriacontanol Limited Daily Intake: ≤300mg/day Note: it is not suitable for consumption by infants and young children, and pregnant women. The labels and instructions shall be indicated with unsuitable crowds. 8. γ-linolenic Acid Oil Source: Cunninghamella echinulata (Thaxter) Thaxter Processing: mycelium of C. echinulate Thaxter is produced through drying, extraction and refining. Limited Daily Intake: ≤6g/day 9. Calcium β- hydroxy -β- methyl butyrate (CaHMB) Structural formula: Limited Daily Intake: ≤3g/day Limited Applications: beverage, dairy, cocoa product, chocolate product, candy, bakery, sports nutrition food, formula food for special medical use. Note: it is not suitable for consumption by infants and young children, children, pregnant and lactating women. The labels and instructions shall be indicated with unsuitable crowds and consumption limit. 10. Lithocarpus litseifolius folium (young leaf) Source: Lithocarpus litseifolius (Hance) Chun Processing: young leaf of L. litseifolius is processed through deactivation, rolling, drying. Limited Daily Intake: ≤10g/day (as dry product) Consumption instruction: brewing Note: it is not suitable for consumption by infants and young children. The labels and instructions shall be indicated with unsuitable crowds. Introduction of novel foods in China Novel foods refer to the following items in China without traditional eating habits: (I) animals, plants and microorganisms; (II) components separated from animals, plants and microorganisms; (III) food components that have changed in their original structure; (D) other newly developed food raw materials. For novel foods exported to China, “Administrative measures for safety review of novel foods” requires that except submitting the specified general materials, the evidentiary materials for allowing the products to be produced or sold in local country (area) issued by relevant departments and institutions of exporting country (area), evidentiary materials for production enterprises review or certification issued by relevant institutions and organizations in the country (area) where the production enterprise located shall be submitted. With the continuous development of technology, more and more innovative raw materials flow into the Chinese market. For the enterprises intending to register a novel food in China, Foodmate can provide the following services for you: