China Abolishes Technical Standards for Testing & Assessment of Health Food

On Jul. 4, 2018, China National Health Commission announced the removal of a large number of outdated regulations/notices/announcements. The following 2 health food testing and manufacturing evaluation standards have been removed:

• Technical Standards for Testing & Assessment of Health Food (2003)

• Inspection method and evaluation standard of health food GMP

Issued by former Ministry of Health, “Technical Standards for Testing & Assessment of Health Food (2003)” has been an extremely important regulatory reference for the registration of functional health food. It stipulated the assessment procedures to substantiate functional efficacy (24) and safety (18) toxicological assessment procedures, as well as testing standards of 27 functional ingredients.

The new “Technical Standards for Testing & Assessment of Health Food” is still under revision and is expected to be promulgated next year. Currently, there is no significant impact on items already under technical review. In fact, the abolition of these standards doesn't seem to have precipitated any meaningful change to practical requirements in the short term. According to some experts, the abolished technical standard will actually remain the unofficial reference standard authorities use during the technical review and other activities.. However, the expert also went on to suggest that new applicants pay attention to any specific instructions issued by the competent authority.