The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) on Dec. 25 held a press briefing to unveil detailed rules on screening the production and quality of infant formula, expecting to complete reviews on all 128 local milk powder makers by May 31 next year, Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily reports.
Of the total 128 manufacturers, one third or even half of them may be forced to withdraw from the market after the review, said Song Liang, dairy analyst from Distribution Productivity Promotion Center.
The details unveiled will trigger more investments from milk powder makers, thus increasing rising retail milk powder prices, the report said.
Jiang Yujun, director of the National Dairy Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, said the new rules will demand local infant formula makers have their own sources of milk, strictly monitor their raw material quality, and establish screening mechanisms on suppliers of all raw materials.
The new rules have clearly requested the production of milk powder to adopt the GMP management system used in producing medicine. The request will increase the investment on production facilities by milk powder makers, but the most important thing is the safety of milk sources, said dairy expert Wang Dingmian.
In the past, as the dairy cattle breeding was done mainly in northern areas such as Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, the initial production of milk sources, the base powder, was made in these areas, and then the remaining part of processing was done in southern areas, said Ma Chunliang, CFDA’s supervision director. In many other countries, all such production processes are done in the same factory to ensure the quality of infant formula products. The new rules will give unqualified manufacturers a grace period of three years to improve their production processes, said Ma.
However, the rules do not clearly regulate the model adopted by many imported milk powder products which import base milk powder and process it in China.
Previously, the government had said it would provide more than 30 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) of funds to help local milk powder makers transform themselves with preferential policies and loans to help large enterprises in acquisitions and restructuring, as well as subsidies and loans for milk powder makers to upgrade production lines, their investment in research and development to upgrade technology, and compensation for those enterprises who withdraw from the market, the report said.
Source: Want China Times