Shanghai to Adopt New Rules on Imported Food Safety Information Management

On 20th of November, Shanghai CFDA and Shanghai CIQ issued the “Rules for the Reinforcement of Imported Food Safety Information Management”. This 15 article long provision aims at the comprehensive exchange of information between food safety supervision and management bodies of Shanghai Government, and the generation of data on importers and operators dealing with imported food near expiry date.

The “Rules” cover food imported through Shanghai Port and directly sold or utilized in this city, and “near expiry date” means any food that at the time of the attainment of CIQ Certificate has already reached 2/3 of its shelf life(from production to expiry date).

In order to achieve upstream traceability, importers and operators of imported food near expiry date will be requested to enter their information in a Shanghai unified food safety database. The information shall include:
-Importers in the city,
-basic information on the operators,
-categories and names of the imported foods,
-production site,
-batch number,
-product quantity and other relevant inspection and quarantine information.
 The “Rules” also details penalties as well requirements on disclosure and storage of information. This regulation shall come into force on December 15, 2017.