SFDA strengthens supervision of raw materials for health foods

On March 18, the State Food and Drug Administration stated that it would further strengthen supervision and management of raw materials for health foods, ensure the quality of health foods and food safety, and issue notices on relevant matters in accordance with the Food Safety Law and its implementation regulations.

According to the notification requirements, health food production enterprises should strictly control the purchase clearance, strengthen raw material procurement management, and be responsible for the quality of purchased raw materials. They must strictly comply with the requirements of the “Good Manufacturing Practice for Health Food” and earnestly assume the responsibility of the first responsible person for product quality. Procurement and use of raw materials of unknown origin and counterfeiting. For entrusted production, the entrusting party shall be the first responsible person for product quality and safety, and the entrusted party shall strictly supervise the production and use of raw materials in accordance with the requirements of the code and shall bear corresponding responsibilities.

The State Food and Drug Administration requires all provincial food and drug supervision and administration departments to take practical measures to implement the supervision responsibility of food and drug supervision and administration departments at or below the provincial level, strengthen the supervision of the procurement and use of raw materials by health food production enterprises, and earnestly strengthen the procurement and use of raw materials for health foods. The supervision of the links ensures the quality and safety of health foods.

The notice requires special attention to strengthen the supervision and inspection of the purchase and use of propolis, ejiao and other health food production enterprises that are expensive, have limited output, animal and plant extracts, marked imported raw materials, and lack the characteristics of control indicators. All localities must, in conjunction with the actual conditions of the jurisdiction, put forward a list of key health food raw materials to be supervised and implement key supervision. For products with potential safety hazards, all production and operations shall be suspended, relevant information shall be announced to the public, and administrative measures such as ordering cancellation shall be taken.