China’s food and drug watchdog on Wednesday unveiled revised regulations that will significantly increase standards for domestic infant formula producers and lead to a shake-up of China’s infant formula industry.
The revised regulations set new rules and raise requirements for infant formula producers in nine areas, including product safety control, the purchasing of raw materials, formula quality inspection, the manufacturing process and product traceability.
The regulations, entitled Detailed Rules on Examination of Production Licenses for Infant-formula Milk Powder Producers (Version 2013), was drafted with the help of 30 experts and food and drug supervisors, said the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
The SFDA said that in July of this year that experts had started revising the old regulations, which were issued in November of 2010. A draft of the new regulations was published on Aug. 6 to solicit public opinion. A total of 8,970 people were polled and suggestions were collected during 10 days of public consultations, it said.
To implement the new regulations, the SFDA said it would start a nationwide campaign to review and examine the production licenses currently held by infant formula producers. The campaign will be completed before May 31, 2014, it said.
Producers who fail to meet the new requirements or fail to obtain new licenses in the campaign will be granted a grace period of two years by provincial food and drug administrations to improve and rectify their manufacturing chain.
According to the new regulations, an infant formula producer should register their product formula, product packages and labels with provincial food and drug administrations.
The regulations demand that the producers assume primary liability for product safety. Producers should ensure the traceability of their products and establish and implement a product recall system, it said.
The new regulations also include a series of sanitation and quality control standards, which employ pharmaceutical production standards as reference.
In a memo to provincial food and drug administrations, the SFDA said the new regulations are an important measure to implement what had been laid down by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on strengthening quality control of infant formula products.
The SFDA asked provincial authorities to strictly enforce the new regulations and ensure smooth work flow in reviewing and examining the production licenses.
Chinese authorities have been making continuous efforts to restore consumer confidence in Chinese dairy products, after the industry’s reputation was seriously undermined by a tainted milk scandal in 2008, when it was discovered that unscrupulous Chinese milk producers had mixed melamine with their dairy products in order to cheat protein content tests. The practice caused the deaths of at least six Chinese babies and left another 300,000 ill.
On May 31, 2013, Premier Li Keqiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council and unveiled detailed plans aiming to improve the quality of domestic baby milk powder.
At that time, Li said that supervision of baby formula should be as strict as it is for pharmaceutical drugs.
Source: Want China Times