China steps up regulations governing infant formula industry
Staff Reporter 2013-06-22 15:02
Infant formula at a supermarket in China. (Photo/CFP)
To restore consumer confidence in domestic dairy products and reshape the national infant formula industry, the State Council, China's cabinet, revealed on May 31 a series of new regulations that will require infant formula producers to establish their own milk sources, forbid them to outsource production, adopt private labels, or use several brand names for the same formula.
Insiders note that many of the country's 127 infant formula firms will be in danger after the new regulations, especially those with unreliable milk sources and outdated production technology, equipment, and testing facilities.
China's Food and Drug Administration will release a comprehensive list online of all the firms meeting the new standards, along with the package design, color, label, and specifications of their products, to help consumers identify the key players and products in the industry. The administration will also require that vendors only sell the qualified products on the list.
Infant formula producers, vendors, and importers will be financially liable to compensate consumers for defective products. Meanwhile, Ma Cunliang, deputy director of administration's food supervisory department, said out that the ban on private label production and outsourcing production mainly targets small firms with production licenses but lacking production capability. However, the new regulations does not forbid overseas private label products, he said.
Some diary firms in China have begun to register brands in overseas markets, outsourcing production overseas and importing the products into China under foreign labels. Ma said that the administration will step up quality inspection of such products and forbid substandard ones from entering the country. Song Liang, a senior industry researcher, suggests that government should ban overseas private label products if they do not provide information on their specific milk sources.
Members of the public in China have been persistently reluctant to return to domestic formula brands after a series of safety scandals, most notably the melamine scandal in 2008 that caused hundreds of thousands of infants to develop kidney stones, resulting in six deaths.
