China’s New Food Safety Authority: Duties, Goals and Division of Labor

Background

In March 2013, China realized largescale institutional reform, forming China’s first centralized and Ministerial level Food Safety Authority the CFDA. Just 5 years after on March 2018, China disbanded the CFDA and replaced it with a new regulatory authority named SAMR, which will have increased responsibilities and enforcement powers in addition to taking over responsibilities previously designated to the CFDA (read CL news here). As one of their first major policy plans, SAMR outlined their “3 stipulation scheme” which serves as their organizational blueprint outlining their function and responsibilities, organizational structure, departments and respective division of labor and general staffing breakdown.