On 20 July, 2016, the China Food and Drug
Administration (CFDA) released the Notice to Further Enhance Supervision on
Food Additive Production in a move to strengthen supervision on food additive
production and establish a food additive traceability system.
Source: Baidu
The Notice specifically included the following provisions:
- It urged manufacturers to carry out production in accordance with laws and
regulations and to assume responsibility: manufacturers are expected to
establish self-check systems for food safety, with government departments then
carrying out supervision on these self-check records, production conditions and
safety risks
- The stringent licensing of food additive production:
-
Manufacturers should provide documents
about production processes, raw/supporting materials and product formulations
in line with laws and regulations, which government departments should then
examine
-
Government departments should clearly
outline the responsibilities of inspectors, and establish a system for
recording and documenting on-the-spot inspections, which should involve
inspectors signing off on such inspections
- Reinforcement of problem-oriented supervision and checks on key production
links. In particular, manufacturers should:
-
Check in-warehouse raw materials and
organise production in line with laws and regulations
-
Take strict control over food additives,
ensuring that they are used within their licensed application range and usage
amount
-
Label products in accordance with laws and
regulations such as national food safety standards and food safety law
-
Perform strict quality control to make sure
that finished products meet national standards
- Increased sampling tests: government departments should carry out sampling
tests frequently and regularly to ensure food additive quality and safety
- Guidance should be provided to food additive manufacturers to help establish
traceability systems:
-
Local food and drug administrations should
offer guidelines to manufacturers on building food safety traceability systems,
something which manufacturers should do within 2 years
-
Manufacturers should document sources of
raw materials, production procedures, and product distribution (e.g
destination, quantity, etc. of goods sold), to make each link traceable
In recent years, local food and drug
administrations have paid increasing attention to food additive manufacturing,
something which has already exerted pressure on manufacturers. This new notice
will inevitably also increase the burden on them.
Sweeteners, a sector of the food additive market, will also be impacted:
production costs will rise, and prices will grow slightly, mostly because
manufacturers will need to invest in new systems, and will have to pass on such
increased costs to users or consumers.
However, in regards to the sweetener
business as a whole, this traceability system will help improve market
transparency, and will provide a public platform for upstream raw material
suppliers, sweetener manufacturers, and end users, who will then be able to
check and ensure product quality and safety.
Review of the policies for the
establishment of food additive traceability system
-
Dec. 2015 – The State Council released the Opinions
to Accelerate Construction of Key Products Traceability Systems. One item in
particular related to the food industry: the advancement of the construction of
a food traceability system, the extension of the system into the raw material
supply side, and improve industry chain traceability
-
April 2016 – The CFDA solicited public
opinion regarding the Opinions to Improve the Food and Drug Traceability
Systems, which is a supplement to the previously released Opinions.
Specifically, it requires food and drug manufacturers to record the source of
raw/supporting materials and the distribution of finished products, and to keep
records and evidence, such as bills for checking, in accordance with laws and
regulations; it also requests that food and drug distributors/sellers take all
the measures outlined in the document in order to clarify the source and destination of
goods
-
July 2016 – The CFDA unveiled the Notice to
Further Enhance Supervision on Food Additive Production, with an intention of
establishing a food additive traceability system
All this indicates that the government is no longer targeting certain
individual manufacturers, but the full industry chain.
This article comes from Sweeteners China News 1608, CCM
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