On August 31st, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine successively issued the Regulations on the Management of Food Recall and the Regulations on the Management of Children’s Toys Recall, and at the same time issued a notice requesting that China fully implement the registration system for export fruit orchards and packaging factories.
The relevant person in charge believes that these regulations are a further improvement of China’s product quality and safety laws and regulations system, aiming at effectively curbing the illegal export of food, eliminating the safety hazards of children’s toys, establishing consumers’ confidence in the quality and safety of China products, and facilitating the traceability and recall of problematic products.
Implementing the "two-level supervision" mode to recall food according to the degree of safety hazards
If the food is unsafe, it will be mandatory to recall it. The Regulations on the Management of Food Recall requires that food producers must, in accordance with procedures, promptly replace, return, supplement or amend the consumption instructions of unsafe foods to reduce and eliminate the hazards that may be caused by insecurity, deal with unsafe foods quickly and effectively, and effectively eliminate or reduce the food safety hazards.
Food recall implements the "two-level supervision" model. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine organized the establishment of a food recall information management system to collect, analyze and process food recall information in a unified way. The provincial quality supervision department is responsible for organizing the supervision of food recall within its administrative area, and the municipal quality supervision department cooperates with the provincial quality supervision department to supervise and manage the recall process. According to the evaluation of food safety hazards’s degree, the food recall is divided into three levels, and the specific actions of food recall are required according to the recall level, so as to realize the purpose of recall quickly and effectively.
If food producers deliberately conceal the safety hazards and do not take the initiative to recall, if food safety hazards is enlarged or reoccurred due to the fault of food producers, and if the food that does not meet the food safety standards is found to be unsafe food through investigation and evaluation, AQSIQ will issue a notice or announcement to order enterprises to recall unsafe food and issue a consumption warning.
"Genuine goods" and "parallel goods" can be seen at a glance. Export of food without inspection marks is prohibited.
In the future, "genuine goods" and "parallel goods" will be clear at a glance. From September 1, 2007, the exported food that has passed the inspection and quarantine by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions shall be put on the transport package without the inspection and quarantine mark, and shall not be exported.
In order to facilitate trade, inspection and quarantine institutions allow enterprises to apply for marks in advance and add marks in the production and processing process. The inspection and quarantine institutions shall supervise the application and check the use and management of marks by enterprises. Each batch of food must pass the inspection by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine institution before it can be exported. If it fails to pass the inspection, the labeled signs must be removed from the transport package and returned to the inspection and quarantine institution in full, except that the food cannot be exported.
It is understood that the scope of export food with inspection and quarantine marks this time includes aquatic products and their products, livestock food, wild animal meat and its products, casings, eggs and egg products, edible animal fats and oils, and other animal-derived foods.
Improve the traceability system of inbound and outbound fruits, and export fruit orchards and packaging factories should be registered.
Fully implement the registration system for export fruit orchards and packaging factories. On the basis of the registration of fruit orchards and packaging plants exported to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, South America, Europe, Hong Kong and Macao, fruit orchards and packaging plants exported to Russia and Southeast Asia should be included in the inspection and quarantine registration management. Since November 1, 2007, the inspection and quarantine department shall not accept the fruit export inspection from unregistered orchards and packaging factories.
The notice stressed that the inspection and quarantine departments should improve the traceability system of inbound and outbound fruits and establish a recall system. Each bureau should establish a file for each batch of exported fruits, including the origin, orchard, packaging factory, exit time, number of phytosanitary certificate, destination and other information, and export fruit packaging factories and orchards should establish a traceability system and planting files respectively. If major safety, health or quarantine problems are found through inspection and quarantine, relevant information shall be announced to the public. Import and export enterprises shall notify sellers to stop selling, take the initiative to recall the problematic fruits, and report to the inspection and quarantine institutions.
The producer is the first responsible person, and defective children’s toys must be discontinued.
"Regulations on the Management of Children’s Toys Recall" further tightens the product responsibility of producers for producing defective children’s toys, and clearly stipulates that producers are the first responsible persons for defective children’s toys.
The regulations require that if there are defects in children’s toys, even if the children’s toys produced by the producers meet the requirements of China’s laws, regulations and mandatory standards on product safety, if they are found to be defective after investigation and evaluation, the producers must stop production and sales, announce the relevant situation to the public, notify the sellers to stop selling and consumers to stop consuming, report to the quality and technical supervision department, and actively eliminate the possible damage caused by the defects by improving the consumption instructions, returning goods, replacing goods and repairing. Our reporter Yuan Guofeng
Editor: Huo Junxia
