On December 30, 2020, the SAMR announced the Dairy Products Quality and Safety Improvement Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) to further improve the quality and safety of dairy products and promote the high-quality development of the dairy industry. Antion analyzes and interprets the main contents of the Plan as follows:

Improve the regulations and standards related to dairy products

The Plan clarified that the SAMR shall assist other departments to revise and improve raw milk, sterilized milk, pasteurized milk, infant formula and other national food safety standards to improve the quality of dairy products. The improvement of regulations and standards related to dairy products will help to improve the overall safety level of dairy products and increase consumer confidence.

Strengthen the supervision of infant and young children formula milk powder

The Plan put forward the overall requirements for infant and young children formula milk powder.

In terms of formula registration, the Administration Measures on Formula Registration of Milk Powdered Formula for Infant and Young Children has been revised to clarify the situation of not being registered and require enterprises to have complete production processes, which is consistent with the requirements of the Administration Measures on Formula Registration of Milk Powdered Formula for Infant and Young Children (Draft for Comments) released in 2019. Infant and young children formula milk powder that has met the national food safety standards shall not be used as raw materials to apply for formula registration, that is, the base powder that meets the final product standards shall not be used as raw materials to apply for formula registration, which also means that the base powder will not be prohibited from using.

In terms of sampling inspection and monitoring, in 2021, the market regulatory authorities will comprehensively strengthen sampling inspection of infant and young children formula milk powder, conduct monthly sampling inspection of domestic and imported infant formula food sold on the market. Therefore, it is suggested that enterprises conduct self-inspection in advance.

The Plan put forward more strict regulatory requirements for infant and young children formula milk powder, and in the future, all regulatory authorities will strengthen the supervision, management and sampling inspection of formula registration, production and sales of infant and young children formula milk powder. Therefore, it is suggested that enterprises strictly follow the requirements to strengthen the monitoring of raw materials and auxiliary materials at source, production process and final product inspection.

In the face of the increasing imports of dairy products every year, the release of the Dairy Products Quality and Safety Improvement Action Plan puts forward higher requirements for dairy production enterprises, especially infant and young children formula milk powder manufacturers, which will help dairy enterprises to increase their competitiveness and reputation in the face of increasingly fierce market competition.

Please click Interpretation of the Dairy Products Quality and Safety Improvement Action Plan to get more information.

Please click HERE to read the official notice.