China SAMR Clarifies Health Food Labeling Requirements

On 17th of April, China State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) published an interpretation of CFDA’s announcement   implemented on 13th February 2018 on the labeling of health food with function claims. It covers the following areas:

First, Health foods that didn’t undergo human clinical testing for their health function should specify it and be labeled as: "[health function] this product was animal tested, has xxx health function."

Second, approved health food products that underwent human testing before the new technical and labeling requirements were implemented can continue labeling their functions as before. Products involving multiple health claims based on animal or population testing should mark the different functions separately. For example, a product for which Health function “A” was only animal tested, Health function “B” was tested on humans and Function “C” was tested on animals and humans has to be labeled individually following this system:  e.g "[health function] A, B, C (was animal tested, has A health function) clearly indicating which one of the health functions was only animal tested.

Third, nutrition supplements will not need animal and human testing, their claim labeling will not change and it should appear like "[Health Function] Supplement ×××."

Fourth, the applicant should modify labels and instructions in accordance with the requirements of the announcement but won’t need to submit separately an application change for this content.

Fifth, SAMR clarified that the term "since January 1, 2021" mentioned by CFDA refers to the deadline for the sale of health food that hasn’t yet been modified in accordance with the above-mentioned requirements.