Food additives with safety risks will be subject to mandatory recall
Tiny additives, a complex big world. How are they used? How are they managed? When consumers choose food, additives have often already moved in. How does production supervision and management strictly guard the entry gate? On June 1, the Provisions on the Supervision and Administration of Food Additive Production issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine officially took effect. This is China's first management regulation specifically targeting food additive production. Producers now have rules to follow, and enterprises have regulations to abide by in management.
The reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Xu Xinjian, deputy director of the Department of Laws and Regulations of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Reporter: I see that this regulation first states that a producer must obtain a production license before it can engage in the production of food additives. Could you explain whether obtaining a production license also must go through strict access standards and more detailed provisions?
Xu Xinjian: First, only substances approved and announced by the Ministry of Health can be produced as additives. No other substances may be used as food additives for production. If a production enterprise wants to obtain a production license, the supervision and administration provisions set out nine conditions for production licensing, and only according to a certain procedure can the production license be obtained.
Reporter: As far as you know, in the current market, do most of the manufacturers producing food additives meet these new standards?
Xu Xinjian: Because food additives have been subject to production licensing for many years, they were originally regulated according to the Product Quality Law and the Regulations on Industrial Product Production Licenses. In this newly issued regulation, in addition to following the Product Quality Law and the Regulations on Industrial Product Production Licenses, we mainly rely on certain provisions of the Food Safety Law and its implementing regulations, and the conditions are stricter than the previous production license conditions.
Reporter: In the new regulation there is a recall step. If a safety risk is found in the production of food additives, a recall should be implemented according to law. How do we ensure that such safety risks can be discovered immediately, and who discovers the risks?
Xu Xinjian: In the process of supervision and consumer complaints, we discover possible risks from information. Recall is a new system in our new regulation. Consumers may find that food problems may be caused by additive problems. Another situation is that in our daily supervision we may discover risks. In addition, there are food processing enterprises. Because food additives are mainly used by food processing enterprises, food processing enterprises may discover problems with additives during food processing. Additive production enterprises themselves may also receive some information. If they receive some information, they should voluntarily recall and report to the competent department. When the competent department discovers a problem, it will notify food production enterprises to recall. If they do not recall, we can adopt a mandatory recall. Generally speaking, when the defect is relatively conclusive, the production enterprise should voluntarily recall. If it does not voluntarily recall, we can adopt administrative compulsory measures. (According to China National Radio)