FOOD SAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

Letter About Notifying the “Measures for Inspection, Supervision and Administration of Import and Export Prepackaged Food Labels” to WTO/TBT

2017-12-25 06:20 Click:374

To further optimize the inspection and supervision of import and export prepackaged food labels, improve the supervision efficiency and make the custom clearance of products convenient, we organized to adjust the related content in the “Regulations for inspection, supervision and administration of import and export prepackaged food labels” (Announcement No. 27, 2012), and formulated the “Measures for inspection, supervision and administration of import and export prepackaged food labels” (see Attachment). Please notify it to WTO according to the prescribed procedures. The requirements of import and export for food labels of exporters and export manufacturers have been detailed in the revised draft. For importers, the requirements such as “The importers shall retain the label information of their imported foods for 2 years at least, and accept the supervision and sampling inspection on the labels of imported prepackaged foods carried out by the inspection and quarantine bodies.” has been added in the revised draft, which explains the storage period of import food labels information for importers and the acceptance of supervision and sampling inspection of related organizations.

There are no requirements stipulated for the industry and commerce business license of importers and dealers; such statement as “When the export prepackaged foods are subject to application for inspection, the specimen page of label and translation shall be provided and the declaration in conformity with the requirements stipulated in Paragraph 2, Article 3 of the Measures shall be submitted.” has been deleted in the requirements for import.

The relevant contents related to the letter of commitment of enterprise have been added in the revised draft, which shall include the following contents: 1. The import prepackaged foods have been affixed or printed with Chinese labels in consistent with the specimen page of Chinese label submitted for application, which comply with the provisions of laws and regulations in China and the requirements of national food safety standards; 2. The imported prepackaged foods shall be proactively recalled according to the provisions specified by Article 63 of “Food Safety Law” if the labels do not meet the provisions of laws and regulations in China and the requirements of national food safety standards.

In addition, the inspection for the import prepackaged food labels has been elaborated, the on-site inspection has been increased, and the release conditions for the foods unselected in the random inspection have been explained in the revised draft. The requirements for the importers when importing prepackaged foods again have been added, and the relevant demands of effectiveness and batches for the importers who are enforced with strict supervision has been made in this revised draft.