food safety

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By：Chen Bing, Dai Enchao, Gui Siyu

It has been years but many people might still recall the melamine scandal. As part of the efforts to rebuild the food safety system, infant formula registration was firstly introduced in the Food Safety Law (2015). This registration mechanism aims to enhance the safety of the formula industry by setting higher thresholds for infant formula manufacturers, and kicking out those lack sufficient capabilities in safety control and technologies.
Continue Reading Era of Infant Formula Registration- Situation, Pitfalls and Solutions

By Mark Schaub and Chen Bing King & Wood Mallesons’ Corporate & Securities group

schaub_m1On April 28, 2017, China Food and Drug Administration (“CFDA”) released for public comment a draft Opinion on the Further Strengthening of the Supervision of Health Food (“Draft Opinion”).

The Draft Opinion leans heavily on principles already set out in the new Food Safety Law and the Administration Measures on Registration and Filing of Health Food (“Administration Measures”) of 26 February 2016 but also does give a hint as to their current thinking in relation to health food registration and filing:
Continue Reading CFDA Further Strengthen the Supervision of Health Food

By King & Wood  Mallesons’  Compliance Group

Through reviewing the performance and effectiveness of crisis management during recent food safety events, we were reminded of our comments relating to the Revised Amendment to the PRC Food Safety Law and importance of crisis management for multinational companies. Our reflections on recent events are focusing on the following topics: response time; response attitude; internal public relations (PR) team and official press conference.
Continue Reading Reflections on crisis management of recent food safety events

By Mark Schaub and Chen Bing King & Wood Mallesons’ Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Group

It would be safe to say that when Hong Kong rejoined China as a Special Administrative Region in 1997 there was little thought, if any, paid to milk powder and its effect on relations with the mainland. However, recent restrictions introduced in Hong Kong on the sale and distribution of milk powder produced by mainland suppliers has become a major, and indeed emotional, issue. As the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee (“CPPCC”) and 12th National People’s Congress (“NPC”) (the highest authority of the PRC) commenced on March 5, 2013, baby milk grabbed the attention of representatives in both forums.
Continue Reading PRC Food Safety Law: Food for Thought

By Richard W. Wigley King & Wood Mallesons’ IP Litigation Group

Under the Civil Procedure Law of the P.R.C. (“CPL”), Articles 53-56 of the current CPL define requirements for filing a “joint litigation”, including those suits where said joint litigation may involve “one party with numerous litigants”.[1] To this latter scenario, Article 55 of the CPL notes that where “one of the parties has numerous litigants, but the exact number of litigants is uncertain when the lawsuit is filed, the People’s Court may issue a public notice to explain the nature of the case and the claims of the litigation and inform those persons who are entitled to the claim to register their rights with the People’s Court within a fixed time period.”[2] Article 55 goes on to provide that the litigants may elect “representatives” and further defines the binding nature of the Court’s ruling on not only the “representative”, but upon all litigants.[3]
Continue Reading China’s Civil Procedure Law Reported to be Amended to Broaden Definition of Types of Litigants Allowed to File Class-action Lawsuits

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