Key Institutional Players in the New Food Safety Law in China

The new food safety law comes into force on the 1st October 2015 and China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) becomes the main, central authority for food safety.

Other ministries who also share regulatory competences in this matter are The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) which overview food import/export and The National Health and Family Planning Commission of Peoples Republic of China (NHPFC) which is in charge of risk assessment.

Traceability becomes a key principle of the new law as well as the so-called whole society approach.

This approach aims to gather all players (producers, traders, caterers, authorities, consumers, media) in the pursuit of food safety. Therefore it is important to note that the new law clearly outlines the obligations that producers and traders have to recall non-compliant or unsafe products.

Sanctions become very harsh: beside criminal liability, punitive damages or fines can be up to 20 or 30 times the value of the non-compliant products.

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