Take home
- Imported food additives should comply with the corresponding National Food Safety Standards (NFSS) according to China’s New Food Safety Law, effective from 1 Oct 2015.
- If the relevant National Food Safety Standards are not available, China AQSIQ allows the use of previously promulgated national standards (with the letters “GB” in the name of the standard) as the primary regulatory reference when importing food additives.
GB (Chinese mandatory national standard) standards have for many years been the primary regulatory reference for products both domestic and imported. They are issued by various departments, such as AQSIQ, SAC and MOH (former NHFPC), which may cause inconsistency and overlap among the GBs especially between some overarching horizontal standards and more specific vertical product and category standards. As food safety is a top concern in China, the government decided to build and develop a uniform and standardized system for foods and food-related products. Hence, the concept of the National Food Safety Standards was introduced, which are published and administrated only by the NFHPC rather than multiple authorities. Since 2010, the NHFPC has been consolidating all China’s food standards to form NFSSs. However, its mission is not yet complete. According a report made by NHFPC on 21 Apr 2016, NHFPC has only issued 683 NFSSs, which don’t cover all food categories, food additives, etc.
To sustain import of food additives that are already imported but without corresponding NFSSs, AQSIQ’s transitional measure is to allow exporters and importers to reference the current GB standards. For any foodstuffs without a corresponding GB standard importers must apply to NHFPC first.
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