SAMR Issues Administrative Measures for Food Safety Sampling Inspection

On 8th Aug., 2019, SAMR issued the 'Measures for Administration of Sampling Inspection of Food Safety', which will be implemented on 1st Oct. 2019 ^[1]. It is a revised version based on the previous measures which were formulated on Dec. 2014 ^[2]. ChemLinked previously reported on the consultation draft, for more information, please click here.

The updated administrative measures have clarified the scope of inspection, explained the requirements of sampling procedures, and improved the provisions and measures of the re-inspection procedures.

Work Emphasis

According to the article 10, the following food items are listed as key targets for the food sampling supervision, including:

(1) Foods with high risk and significant environmental impact;
(2) Foods with wide circulation, large consumption, and numerous complaints and reports from consumers;
(3) Foods that are found to have great hidden dangers through risk monitoring, supervision and inspection, special rectification, case inspection, accident investigation and emergency disposal;
(4) Staple or complementary foods for infants, young children and other specific groups;
(5) Foods sold by canteens of schools and childcare institutions, as well as catering service units in tourist spots, central kitchens and collective dining distribution units;
(6) Foods that may contain illegally added non-edible substances;
(7) Foods that have caused health hazards outside the territory and evidence indicates that they may do so at home;
(8) Other foods that should be the focus of sampling inspection.

Regulatory Basis

Basically, sampling inspection shall adopt the inspection items and methods specified in food safety standards; if there is no relevant standard, it shall be inspected in accordance with the temporary limit value, inspection method or supplementary method in associated laws and regulations.

Additionally, under special circumstances such as risk monitoring, case inspection, accident investigation, and emergency disposal, other testing method can be used to figure out factors causing food safety issues if a specific testing method isn't stipulated. However, all those methods adopted shall be advanced and obtain the approval of national or provincial market supervision and administration departments.

Range of Re-inspection

In Article 31, it specifies the foods which are disqualified from re-inspection:

(1) the inspection conclusion is unqualified for the microbial indicators;
(2) the re-inspected backup sample has passed its expiry date;
(3) an application for re-inspection is overdue;
(4) the backup samples cannot be re-inspected for other reasons;
(5) other circumstances where re-inspection is not allowed as stipulated by laws, regulations, rules and food safety standards.

For the complete file, please click here.