Recently, the China Food and Drug Administration ("CFDA") has distributed the Guiding Opinions on Further Supervising the Implementation of Food Safety Responsibilities by Large-scale Food Manufacturers as Subjects (the "Opinions").
The Opinions set forth specific requirements on the implementation of food safety responsibilities by large-scale food manufacturers ("large enterprises") as subjects from ten perspectives, such as "actively promoting the food safety liability insurance". The Opinions propose the need of supervising enterprises' complete implementation of several management systems on the incoming inspection for raw materials and auxiliary materials, production process control, delivery inspection, and traceability of products, establishing a system to examine and evaluate suppliers and third-party logistics companies, and encouraging large enterprises to establish a traceability system for food safety throughout the whole process. Also, the Opinions expressly state that efforts shall be redoubled to randomly inspect and monitor foods produced by large enterprise, especially high-risk foods, crack down on production and operation beyond the range of permit, production foods with non-food materials, alteration of labels and logos, and other violations. Those enterprises whose products are found defective or unqualified in tests during the inspection shall be blacklisted and announced to the public in a timely manner.