Founded in 1995, China Dairy Industry Association (CDIA) is a formal member of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), representing over 580 members, which includes all large and medium-sized dairy enterprises in China. CDIA hosts an annual meeting as a platform for enterprises to exchange information, products, and new technologies while promoting the development of the industry. Recently, with the 29th annual meeting held in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, a large number of officials and professionals gathered there. This article summarizes the regulatory dynamics in China's dairy industry revealed at this meeting.
In this session, Yunbo Luo, Director of Food and Health Research Center of BTBU, introduced the overview and development of China's FSMP industry, and shared his insights on opportunities and challenges that stakeholders should be aware of. In Luo's opinions, the opportunities mainly arise from the insufficient supply for the huge demand, the increasing attention on the elderly's health, as well as the high-end trend of infant formula milk powder. However, the weak foundation of the industry and the regulatory supervision that still needs improvement pose severe challenges.
ShengLi Li, Chief Expert from National Dairy Industry Technology System analyzed the challenges posed to China's dairy industry and offered his suggestions. Currently, China's dairy industry is facing many difficulties, such as overcapacity, low industry profits, the decrease of newborns and the overall population, the decline in imports, etc. Besides, China's dairy production and consumption structure varies a lot from western countries, with liquid dairy products dominating the Chinese dairy industry. Li advocated a more balanced dairy production and consumption structure, as well as greater effort on promoting the dairy consumption.
This session was presented by Kungang Song, Honorary President of China National Committee of International Dairy Federation (CNCIDF). Large amount of industry data and information was shared in his speech, regarding dairy's production, import & export, and quality. More importantly, on behalf of CNCIDF, Song revealed the outlook and work emphasis for the next year. Song urged the industry to optimize product structure, paying more attention to the production of adult milk powders, cheese, cream, plant-based dairy products, as well as special milk products like goat milk, yak milk and camel milk. For this session, ChemLinked will have a follow-up article to share more details. Please stay tuned.
AiDong Liu, an official from CFSA, shared a comprehensive interpretation of the latest drafted amendment to GB 25596 General Rules of Infant Formula Foods for Special Medical Use released in February of 2023. As revealed by Liu, the official version is expected to be released next year if viewing it optimistically. Click for ChemLinked News about the proposed revisions.
As one of the most important regulations in China's food labeling legislations, the revision on GB 7718 General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods has always been a close concern for food industry. In fact, China unveiled the proposed amendment to GB 7718 in 2019, but the official version has not been released yet. In this session, Hangyu Yu, an official from CFSA, first interpreted the revisions in the draft, and assumed that the official version may still need more time to be unveiled, due to some pending labeling provisions that are still under discussion between CFSA and SAMR, such as the exemption rules. In addition, Yu also disclosed that in the future, regulators may release several amendment sheets without grace periods instead of releasing the whole updated version of food labeling regulations.
Yun Wang, Former Director of the Regulatory Department, HeiLongJiang Green Food Science Research Institute, introduced the progress of revisions on GB 11674-2010 Whey Powder and Whey Protein Powder. The consultation draft of GB 11674 was released in September of 2020, and has passed two rounds of expert review so far. As disclosed by Wang, despite that whey powder and whey protein powder have a wide range of applications in the Chinese market, at present, the majority of them are imported, and barely produced in China.
As probiotics has become a hotspot in the food industry, more and more enterprises are devoting considerable efforts on R&D of probiotics, especially on new probiotics. In this session, Tong Ou, an official from CFSA, expounded the status of regulatory supervision on probiotics in China. One of the highlights of this session was Ou explained the key points that the expert team would particularly consider for new probiotics applications, which might help stakeholders to better prepare the applications and obtain the approval more easily.
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