On April 22, 2019, General Administration of Customs (GAC) issued an announcement on the Management of Supervision on Labelling of imported and Exported Pre-packaged foods, declaring that the requirement of label filing for first imported pre-packaged food is cancelled from October 1, 2019.

The announcement is as follows:
 

1. Cancelling the requirement of label filing for pre-packaged food that is imported into China for the first time, the act comes into force on October 1, 2019. As one of the compulsory inspection items, the label of imported pre-packaged food is inspected by the customs, in accordance with the laws and regulations on food safety and inspection of import & export commodities.
 

2. Import agency shall take the responsibility of reviewing the compliance of the Chinese label of imported pre-packaged food. The label which is not comply with the relevant laws, regulations and national food safety standards in China may not be imported to China.
 

3. If the imported pre-packaged food is sampled for inspection on site or in laboratory, the import agency shall submit the qualified certification, the original and translated labels of the imported pre-packaged food, the Chinese label sample and other supporting dossiers to the customs.
 

4. If the customs receives notifications from other administrative departments or/and complaints from consumers about the non-compliant label of pre-packaged imported food, the customs shall verify the situation, once /confirm/ied, shall impose punishment according to laws.
 

5. imported pre-packaged food for display, samples, tax-free goods (except for tax exemption from island), self-use by the embassy and consulate, pre-packaged food through passenger carrying, post parcel, express package or cross-border e-commerce should comply with other relevant regulations.
 

6. Manufacturers who export pre-packaged food should guarantee the label comply with the standards or contractual requirements of the importing country (or region).
 

7. The following announcements shall be abolished from October 1, 2019: a) announcement No. 44 in 2006 by former AQSIQ, b) announcement No. 59 in 2011 by former AQSIQ, c) announcement No. 27 in 2012 by former AQSIQ. The label information of imported pre-packaged food that has been filed shall become invalid from October 1, 2019.

For more information in Chinese, please click. 

Please note: Original English article of Global Foodmate of Information Service and Business Department, please indicate the source from the Global Foodmate if reprint.


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