By king & Wood Mallesons’ Compliance Group

In order to strengthen the supervision of food safety in China, the National People’s Congress published the “People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law (Revised Amendment)” (“First Revised Amendment”) for public comment on its official website in June 2014. Earlier, in October 2013, the “People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law (Amendment)” (“Amendment”) was published for comment by the State Council. Based on views of the members of the National People’s Congress, the “People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law (The Second Revised Amendment)” (“Second Revised Amendment”) was published in December 2014. Compared to the First Revised Amendment, mainly drafted by the government, the Second Revised Amendment incorporates public views and suggestions. As a result, the Second Revised Amendment is more considerate towards consumer rights and operators’ behavior. This newsletter reviews the highlights of the three Amendments to the People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law and discusses the new provisions of the Second Revised Amendment.
Continue Reading The Second Revised Amendment of the Strictest Food Safety Law in History

By king&WoodMallesons’ Compliance Group

The “People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law (Revised Amendment)” (“Revised Amendment“) was submitted for public comment via National People’s Congress’ official website in June 2014. The first Amendment is the “People’s Republic of China Food Safety Law (“Amendment“), which was submitted to the State Council for comments in late 2013. The State Council received numerous comments and proposals and thus made further modifications to the Amendment. Compared with the Amendment, the content of the Revised Amendment is much more comprehensive, it further increases fines for food safety violations, regulates health food advertising and record management, clarifies food safety training requirements, and specifically addresses infant formula production safety, all of which reflect the growing attention paid by the state to food safety issues. This newsletter will discuss the differences between the Amendment and the Revised Amendment and the underlying rationale behind the differences:
Continue Reading Revised Amendment to the PRC Food Safety Law

By Mark Schaub  King & Wood Mallesons’ FDI Group

According to Chinese media reports last year, six children died and nearly 300,000 others were sickened after consuming milk powder containing melamine, a toxic industrial chemical that was added to show a higher protein level in the milk powder. The melamine contamination of dairy products was discovered to be widespread. Concerns about food safety have surfaced in China long before the melamine dairy scare: sub-standard baby milk produced in Anhui, Longkou noodles containing lead from Shandong, fake alcohol in Guangdong, soy sauce made from human hair (still not clear how that works in practice), eggs with melamine – this list is long and a cause of grave concern to Chinese consumers.
Continue Reading PRC Food Safety Law: Food for Thought

The current concerns about the spiking of dairy products in China with melamine have expanded into concerns about the state of Chinese food safety generally.

The problem does not appear to be a lack of regulations as there are a myriad of  relevant laws, regulations and rules (including PRC Food Hygiene Law, PRC Product Quality Law, PRC Agricultural Product Quality Safety Law, PRC Consumer Rights Protection Law, Special State Council Rules on Strengthening Supervision and Management of Food Safety, National Plan for Major Food Safety Emergencies to name a few).

Mark Schaub, Partner, FDI

Continue Reading Milk Mayhem – China Food Safety System in Flux