Strictest policy on milk powder in China

Management Measures on Production Formula Register of Infant Formula Milk Powder (herein after referred to as “Measures”) were issued on June 9, 2016, and entered into enforce on October 1, 2016.

The implementation of the Measures will have a significant impact on domestic milk powder enterprises. We highlight the following two main issues:

• Every producer shall sell no more than 3 product formulas per each of the three legally-allowed categories (resulting into a total of maximum nine product formulas). At present, market is crowded by the fact like 103 enterprises manufacturing infant formula milk powder with around 2000 formulas. Some enterprises even account for more than 180 formulas. The new Measures mainly tackle the issue.

• Some of the most-used claims are either banned or strictly regulated under the new Measures. In particular, applicant should submit the label sample and specification draft when applying for registration. Raw materials should mark clearly the place of origin: it will not be allowed to only use ambiguous information of “imported milk”, “imported raw materials”, etc. Claims such as “enhance cognitive skills”, “increase resistance /immunity” and “protects the gut” are forbidden. Negative claims about ingredients are not permitted when they refer to additives or ingredients already forbidden from use by PRC standards.

Along with the release of “Two-child policy”, the demand of the infant formula milk powder is expected to considerably increase. At the same time, there are still some chaotic phenomena in the domestic market needed to be administrated in order to guarantee the rapid development of this industry.

The release of the Measures aims at standardizing the manufacture and sales of infant formula milk powder so as to guarantee the sustainable and healthy development of domestic milk power industry by strictly supervising the registration of the infant formula milk power.

In the domestic market, some enterprises promote their infant formula milk power by following the strategy of “similar formula, different brand, increasing promotion and expanding market”, which could easily cause the difficult choice for the customers and eventually mislead them.

These Measures target such phenomenon in the domestic market by limiting the quantity of formulas.

Moreover, claims such as disease prevention and cure, or claims directly or indirectly related to health effect, protect the gut, etc., are explicitly forbidden.