Imported Foods without Comparable Chinese National Food Safety Standards

Abstract: In this article, we will talk about imported products without a comparable Chinese national food safety standard. We will first provide a definition, analyse all the relevant regulations and institutions, concisely describe importation procedure and administrative requirements and finally provide a brief case study.

Definition

According to the regulations in force, we can define imported food without a comparable Chinese national food safety standard as “any food product manufactured outside China and not yet imported for which no national food safety standard has been announced yet”.

This definition doesn’t include:
-Products for which an agriculture food product safety, hygiene, food quality standard or any other relevant food standard has already been formulated;
-Products included in State Council’s announcements or included in the list of products allowed for import;
-Products made by mixing materials that already have a Chinese national standard;

Other types of products not to be included in this definition:
-Imported Health Products;
-Imported products manufactured using new materials;
- Imported new food additives and new food-related products
-Any other type of product not included in the definition.

China’s Food Safety Law and other relevant regulations and institutions

China’s Food Safety Law is the basis for food safety regulation in China; therefore imported foods without comparable Chinese national food safety standard should also conform to it.

2009 Safety Law already included provisions relating to importation “of new types of food additives and/or food-related products imported for the first time, or food imported for the first time which are not covered by existing national food safety standards”(article 63) and required importers to submit required materials to the Ministry of Health. Nevertheless, 2015 Food safety law is more detailed, designates a different institutional body to handle this kind of products, separates Novel Food and Food Raw Materials and is clearer in describing practical compliance procedures.

According to Article 92 of China’s current food safety law, “All imported foods, food additives and food-related products shall comply with China’s national food safety standards”.  Article  93 further expands on this point by stating that “In the event of the importation of food without a national food safety standard, the overseas exporter/producer, or its entrusted importers shall submit relevant national (regional) standard or international standard of the exporting country (region) to the NHFPC”. The National Health and Family Planning Commission will then permit the importation “if the product is considered as being compliant with food safety requirements”.
 
Article 92 and 93 of the food safety law are a huge step forward for international food enterprise which in the past would have certain products barred from market entry. Under the new regulatory mechanism, Industry has the potential to shape and expand the scope of China’s food regulations in an unprecedented way, potentially opening up new markets and serving the previously unmet demands of Chinese consumers. As some success stories suggest, these efforts will pay off because if everything goes smooth the product will be treated the same as any other legally imported food product.

As we anticipated before, unlike 2009 Food Safety Law, novel food and raw food materials, food additives and food-related products will instead be treated according to Article n. 37, which regulates the submission of safety assessment materials to the NHFPC by their producers.
-Other important regulations governing this area include:
·        30^th September 2010 “Declaration and acceptance of Imported Foods without Comparable Chinese National Food Safety Standards”
·        April 27^th, 2017 “On the technical review of Standards for Imported Foods without Comparable Chinese National Food Safety Standards” (2017 n.14 National Hygiene Regulation) and its recent June 1^st   “Update”.
 
The competent regulatory authority tasked with regulating Foreign Products without Comparable Chinese National Food Safety Standard is China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA), belonging to National Health and Family Planning Commission.  It is responsible for licensing work and development of technical specifications, publication of the safety assessment, Report Acceptance, safety assessment, technical review and approval work.

The Updated Procedure

After the publication of Food Safety Law in 2015, great efforts have been made to better define the procedures for importing foods without comparable Chinese national food safety standards. As implementation guidelines are formulated and enacted there is a measurable increase in overall procedural and regulatory efficiency. This culminated in the June 1^ST, 2017 announcement of the updates on the detailed requirements for imported foods without comparable Chinese national food safety standards which include updates on the required application materials and the examination procedure.  

Application Materials

At the present time, the application materials should include:
 
-Application form;
-Supporting documentation proving production and trade in overseas market issued by relevant competent authorities, such as certificate of free sale;
-Standards and regulations related to food safety of relevant country (district) or international standards;
-Supporting documentation and clear rationale for relevant standards and regulations
-Product (sample) picture, product label used in the exporting country (district) and the product label planned to be used in China;
-One unopened sample with minimum package size or 30g of product sample;
-Other materials favorable for the examination

The Online Registration Procedure

-First of all, all applicants should enter the website http://bz.cfsa.net.cn/ and submit the application form and all other required application materials.
-After the submission of all materials, an initial examination will be done to determine if the products belong to the category of imported food without a national standard. This can take up to 5 working days.
-Later on, the application materials will be published at http://cfsa.net.cn for 30 days for public consultation.
-After this, the relevant authorities will do a technical review, during which the applicant will be asked to provide additional documents within 60 days.
-If the technical review results in success, a temporary standard will be used for all subsequent imports of the same product category. If it’s considered necessary, a new food safety standard can also be formulated.    
                                                      
An interesting Case of Imported Food without Comparable Chinese Food Safety Standard
One of the most striking cases of imported products with no relevant standard is Tequila. This alcoholic beverage originated in Mexico and is now enjoyed worldwide both straight and as a cocktail ingredient. Its production involves the distillation of the fermented core of blue agave plant. Given its popularity, it might sound strange that this liquor had to be treated differently from other imported liquors and filed under the Imported Foods with no relevant standard.

National Standard GB2757-2012 is the most important standard for Distilled Spirits and Formulated Spirits. One may think tequila fits such categories, but this standard’s lists of ingredients allowed during fermentation mention only these 4 types: cereals, starchy roots, Fruits or dairy. Another problem facing Tequila is that it contains methanol, a byproduct of distillation due to the high pectin content of the Mexican plant.

Based on these two deviations from Chinese Standards, the NHFPC decided to treat Tequila as an Imported Product with no relevant Standard. This was announced on 20 June 2013, after the application filing was done by some Mexican producers. The NHFPC then fixed the maximum permitted concentration of methanol to 3.0 g per litre and after this, tequila could be successfully exported to China. Nowadays, tequila is certainly not the most successful imported alcoholic beverage, but in 2016 it experienced an interesting 8,5% growth rate up and total sales worth US$2.7 million value.