CHINA FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (CFDA) ISSUED FOOD SAMPLING AND INSPECTION PLAN FOR 2018

On January 4, 2018, CFDA issued the food safety sampling and inspection plan in the purpose of improving China food safety continuously. The plan is based on the “Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China” and “‘13th Five-Year’ national food safety plan”, combined with the actual food safety inspection work.

The plan indicates that 33 major food categories, 137 food species and 218 food subclasses will be covered. 1,350,500 batches will be sampled and inspected in 2018, at national level, provincial level as well as city level.

On the national level, big food enterprises with large market share will be sampled and inspected. Categories include infant formula food, dairy products, meat products, beverages, wines, edible agricultural products and other 30 categories. Besides the sampling and inspection of traditional distribution channels, imported food and food sold online will be also covered in the plan.

One the provincial level, food manufacturers and large catering enterprises with a provincial production license (district or city) will mainly be inspected and sampled. The intensity of sampling and inspection for small workshops, small vendors, small-sized enterprises will be increased appropriately.

On January 18, 2018, in order to further standardize the supervision and inspection work of food safety, the CFDA issued “Detailed rules for the implementation of the food safety sampling and inspection plan (2018 edition)”, which put forward unified requirements for the applicable scope, product species, inspection basis, sampling and inspection requirements, judgment principles and conclusion of the supervision and inspection of the 33 food categories.

Food classification shall be judged according to the basic standards of food classification system, when it is judged according to basic standards (GB2760, GB 2761, GB2762, GB2763, GB29921). For example, the determination of the contaminants of sesame shall be attributed to nuts and seeds. Food according to the food classification system of GB 2762; for another example, the determination of celery contaminants shall be attributed to stem vegetables according to the food classification system of GB 2762, while the determination of its pesticide residues items shall be attributed to leaf vegetables according to the food classification system of GB 2763.