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Newly Approved Recipes in H1, 2021
China approved 30 infant formula (IF) recipes in H1, 2021. Among them, 18 are new recipes and the others are mainly old recipes with renewal approvals.
By country
27 of the approved 30 recipes are from Chinese domestic brands. Only 3 recipes are from Spanish company Laboratorios Ordesa. It is also the first time for Ordesa to get IF recipe approval in China.
By category
Conventional cow recipe still dominates the number of registration approvals. Among all the approved recipes in H1, 2021, 21 of them are conventional cow recipes; 6 are organic cow recipes and only 3 of them are goat recipes.
Table: Recipes approved in H1, 2021
No. | Company | Number | Category | Product series name | |
Chinese name | English Name | ||||
1 | Beingmate | 9 (new recipes) | Cow | 可睿欣 艾贝可 菁爱 | Keruixin Aibeike Jingai |
2 | Red Star | 6 (new recipes) | Organic cow | 芽倍乐 优尔星 | Yabeile Youerxing |
3 | Firmus | 3 | Cow | 飞帆 | Feifan |
4 | Mileyn Dairy | 3 | Goat | 美力源 | Meiliyuan |
5 | Junlebao | 6 | Cow | 淳护 乐臻 | Chunhu Lezhen |
6 | Laboratorios Ordesa | 3 (new recipes) | Cow | 贝乐曼 | Blemil |
Status Quo of IF Recipe Registration
Up to the end of June 2021, 1,381 IF recipes are granted China’s registration approval. But 51 recipes were annulled in the past years (mainly replaced by new recipes).
By country
Imported recipes accounted for 24.5% of the 1,330 valid recipes. The top 5 countries (where the manufacturers are located) with the most recipes are New Zealand, the Netherlands, France, South Korea and Australia.
By group company
1,330 valid IF recipes are owned by 112 group companies. The top 10 group companies with the most recipes are listed below.
By category
Among the 1,330 recipes, only 87 of them are organic cow recipes. For the rest of conventional milk powder products, cow recipes take over 70.45%; goat recipes account for 21.2%.
By stage
IF for each stage are with similar recipe approval number.
Check ChemLinked’s Food-list of Directory Information of Infant Formula Recipe Registration in China1.
Prediction & Trend of IF Recipe Registration
1. Intense recipe registration competition and slower approval speed
On March 18, 2021, three new national food safety standards2 for infant formula were published by China’s NHC, which will be effective on Feb 22, 2023 (which means a two-year grace period is given). Later, SAMR released the following supervision measures and Q&A guidance3 for IF recipe registration to help enterprises meet the compliance standards before the grace period ends.
After the release of these documents, the adjustment of infant formula recipes and the preparation of new recipe registration are in full swing. Since the changes of these new IF GB standards will affect a majority of IF recipes, it is foreseeable that the second wave of IF recipe registration will be quite competitive. The influx of new recipe application and renewal application will influence the approval speed. To foreign brands, ChemLinked assumes the effect will become more pronounced due to factors like geographical location, pandemic, China’s governmental support to domestic enterprises, etc.
2. Stricter requirements for recipe review
Jiang Yujun, a review expert of infant formula recipe, predicted that the sprouting of infant formula registration application will appear in November this year and last to February next year. Besides, compared to the registration requirements in 2017 and 2018, the review work will have more detailed and stringent requirements from now on. For example, because of the finding of new risks, the control measures of contaminants will be subject to more requirements accordingly. Check ChemLinked webinar How to Cope with the Latest China Infant Formula Regulation Changes?4 for more info about the new IF GB standard requirements.
3. Innovative on-site inspection methods
To overseas players, on-site inspection, a key step during the recipe registration, was their major hindrance to obtain recipe approval in the past. But now China is seeking innovative on-site inspection methods for IF recipe registration.
On June 23, 2021, entrusted by competent authorities, China Nutrition and Health Food Association released a questionnaire to solicit public opinions on innovative on-site inspection methods. Proposed on-site inspection methods include cooperation with overseas competent authorities, video inspection, third-party institute inspection and self-inspection by enterprises. Check the English version of this questionnaire here5.
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