The China Food and Drug Administration ("CFDA") has recently issued the Announcement on Standardizing Marks for Alleged Functions of Dietary Supplements (the "Announcement for Marks") and the Announcement on Matters Concerning Applying for the Renewed Registration of Dietary Supplements (the "Announcement for Renewed Registration"), both of which take effect immediately from the issue date.
The Announcement for Marks stipulates that if the dietary supplement has not undergone the human consumption testing, the warning "this product has been tested on animals in experiments" shall be placed before the alleged healthcare functions stated in its labels and user instructions. By the end of 2020, the labels and user instructions of all dietary supplements shall be subject to revision according to the requirement and contain this warning. As of January 1, 2021, any dietary supplement affixed with labels and user instructions not in line with the above-said requirement will be subject to investigations and crackdown in accordance with applicable rules set out in the Food Safety Law. As to the Announcement for Renewed Registration, it explicitly states that where the application for renewing the registration has not been accepted within six months after the expiration of the registration certificate, as a result of the implementation of the Administrative Measures for the Registration and Record-filing of Dietary Supplements, during the period from July 1, 2017 to the issue date of this Announcement, the dietary supplement registrant is allowed to file an application before March 31, 2018 for renewing the registration.