China to Establish Food and Safety ‘Blacklist’
The Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has announced a public
consultation on a draft regulation, “Provisions on the Administration of the
‘Black List’ System for Food and Drug Safety,” that would give regulators the
authority to blacklist companies that violate food safety laws. The regulation
would allow information on manufacturers that violate laws and regulations
concerning food, drugs, medical appliances, and cosmetics management,
and receive administrative penalties, to be made public through government
Websites. Producers and operators included on the “blacklist” would apparently
face increased regulatory supervision.
The draft regulation reportedly also covers food and beverage producers that fail to comply with production license requirements, mislabel products and do not respond appropriately to food safety incident cases. Companies using fallacious, unsubstantiated or misleading marketing would be ordered to suspend production and, in the case of serious breaches of regulations, have their business licenses revoked. Additions to the “blacklist” would be disseminated by CFDA via publication on the official governmental website within 15 days of the initial judgment, including such information as: producer/operator name; persons in charge; relevant products; product batch numbers; label approval numbers; and production license numbers. Comments on the draft regulation will be accepted until January 10, 2014. See CFDA News Release, December 12, 2013; ChemLinked.com, December 17, 2013.
Issue 508
