Smarter Compliance Solution for China Imported Food

There are three important competent authorities for imported foods, they are:

• SAMR (State Administration for Market Regulation)
• GAC (General Administration of Customs of China)
• NHC (National Health Commission of China)

1. SAMR (formerly CFDA) is a super regulator with enforcement powers covering all types of unlawful behavior on China domestic market. Imported food entering China market will be under the supervision of SAMR.
2. GAC has taken over the responsibility of former AQSIQ and now is responsible for tariff collection, inspection and quarantine of imported and exported products, as well as overseas manufacturer registration.
3. NHC is in charge of evaluating, developing and revising the national food safety standards (GB standards) which all foods (including imported foods) should comply with.

Usually, the food regulatory framework can be classified as four levels:

Level 1: China Food Safety Law

Level 2: Regulations and announcements

Level 3: National food safety standards (GB)

Level 4: Other standards (like GB/T)

Food safety law is the basic law enacted by National People’s Congress (NPC) for all foods (including domestic food and imported food), which stipulated the general requirements for foods. The regulations and announcements are more detailed requirements issued by supervision departments based on the law, while national food safety standards are specific requirements for certain food categories. Other standards refer to national recommended standards (GB/T), industry standards, local standards, group standards and company standards.

All imported foods should match corresponding product standards, and the product standards can be national food safety standards (GB), national recommended standards (GB/T) or industry standards. Local standards, group standards and company standards are not applicable to imported foods. If there is no available standard for a product, it cannot be imported to China unless it can get permission from NHC.

Generally, foods are classified as two categories in China: general food and special food:

1. Special food includes health food, infant formula and food for special medical purpose (FSMP).

1) Health food refers to food that claims to have specific health functions (functional health food) or is intended to supplement vitamins and minerals (nutrient supplements). For functional health food, it requires health food registration while for nutrient supplements, it requires health food filing with SAMR before exportation.

2) Infant formula includes food for infant (0-6 months), older infant (6-12 months) and young children (12-36 months). It requires infant formula registration with SAMR and overseas manufacturer registration with GAC before exportation.

3) FSMP is specially processed or formulated to meet special physical or physiological conditions and (or) meet special dietary needs in diseases, disorders and other states. It also requires FSMP registration with SAMR before exportation.

For other imported general foods, they should comply with corresponding product standards but do not need to conduct any product registration (except overseas manufacturer registration for some special categories). For example, milk powder is a general dairy product, it should comply with the corresponding product standard GB 19644-2010 National Food Safety Standard Milk Powder, including physicochemical index, contaminant limits, microbiological index, etc. In addition, all dairy products should conduct overseas manufacturer registration with GAC before exportation.

When you start to consider exporting your food products to China through general trade channel, please be aware that to check whether your products are compliant with China food regulations is always the first thing you should do. In all the items that need to be confirmed, ingredients check and Chinese label design are the most crucial things, since if your product formula is not compliant, basically you can’t export the product to China, or otherwise change the formula, which could be a big investment (or even impossible for a global product).

 

Usually, we can divide the importation procedure into three steps:

Step 1: Preparation work before exportation

Firstly, exporters should confirm whether the products are permitted to export to China, the basic requirements including:

• Find corresponding product classification (try “FoodPanel-formula check” to check the definitions of different food classification).
• Ingredients and additives compliance check (try “FoodPanel-formula check” to auto-check).
• Chinese labeling (use “FoodPanel-formula check” to generate Chinese label).
• Exporter filing
• Overseas manufacturer registration (for meat, aquatic, dairy, infant formula, etc.)
• Product registration/filing (for health food, infant formula, FSMP)
• Bilateral agreement (for products with animal and plant origins)

Step 2: Customs inspection

When the product arrived at the port, the local Customs will conduct random sampling and testing according to corresponding standards. If the product passed Customs inspection and after tariff was paid, Customs will release the product to China market.

Step 3: Market supervision

It is not the end after the products passed Customs inspection. When the products enter China market, they will be faced with SAMR random market inspection. If any food safety issues occurred (like food poisoning), the importer should recall all the sales and face fines, the exporter and manufacturer will also be blacklisted.

According to China Food Safety Law, it is the responsibility of exporters and manufacturers to make sure that foods exported to China are compliant with China laws, regulations and standards. Sometimes importers can help exporters and manufacturers get product compliant, but not all importers are experienced enough to do this work, so it would be better that exporters and manufacturers also know some basic ideas about China food regulations.

We would like to use yoghurt as a case study:

If you’re considering to export yoghurt to China, what procedures you should follow?

Step 1: Determine the food category and match corresponding product standard.

Yoghurt is classified as a dairy product. The product standard for yoghurt is GB 19302-2010 National Food Safety Standard Fermented Milk.

According to GB 19302, fermented milk includes yoghurt and flavored yoghurt. Yoghurt is the product made of raw cow (goat) milk or milk powder through the processes of sterilization and fermentation by certain cultures. Flavored milk is the product made of over 80% of raw cow (goat) milk or milk powder and other raw materials through the processes of sterilization and fermentation by certain cultures with or without adding other ingredients, such as food additives, nutrition fortifiers, vegetables and fruits, and cereals before or after fermentation. You can determine the exact category of your product.

Step 2: Check whether the manufacturer has been registered with GAC.

According to Administrative Measures on Overseas Manufacturer Registration for Imported Foods, overseas manufacturers of dairy products (including yoghurt) should obtain GAC registration before exportation. GAC registration is the behavior between two governments, you can communicate with the competent authority of your country for more details.

Step 3: Check ingredients and additives.

As for yoghurt, you cannot use any other ingredients or additives except raw cow milk, raw goat milk or milk powder and certain cultures.

As for flavored yoghurt, you can use other general food ingredient that is permitted in China, but the usage of raw milk or milk powder should be more than 80%. The additives and nutrition fortifiers shall follow the national standards, i.e., GB 2760-2014 National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives and GB 14880-2012 National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Nutrition Fortifiers.

Step 4: Check the testing limits.

Foods exported to China shall comply with China standards including the testing items. For yoghurt, it should comply with the testing limits in GB 19302, including physicochemical index, contaminant limits, microbial limits, etc. Sometimes, because of different test methods applied, the test results may vary from labs at home and abroad. It is suggested to test the items with China GB methods before exportation.

Step 5: Design a Chinese label.

Chinese label is a mandatory item for all food imported to China. The Chinese label can be printed directly on the outer package or an over label on the original label (except for infant formula, whose Chinese label should be directly printed on the box/can). The requirements for Chinese label are stipulated in GB 7718-2011 National Food Safety Standard General Rules for Labeling of Prepackaged Food. Some product standards may also stipulate some detailed requirements about Chinese label. For example, according to GB 19302, you should indicate “复原乳” (reconstituted milk) on the label if the yoghurt is fully made of milk powder and the font height of “复原乳” should be no less than one fifth of the main displaying panel.

Step 6: Prepare documents for Customs inspection and clearance.

Exporters should prepare necessary documents for Customs inspection and clearance including: certificate of origin, health certificate, test report, etc.

For further food importation regulation knowledge, please feel free to contact our regulatory consulting team for more detailed inquires (info@accestra.com). You can also join in our LinkedIn group for free consultation by clicking the link.