Recently, the China Food and Drug Administration ("CFDA") has issued the Announcement on Several Administrative Provisions concerning the Residue of Veterinary Drugs during the Production and Operation of Animal-derived Food (the "Announcement").
The Announcement sets out that manufacturer of animal-derived food shall strictly control their procurement by establishing a traceability record system from raw materials and finished products. Also, the Announcement makes it clear that operators of animal-derived food are prohibited to sell the meat of livestock and poultry died of diseases, toxicants or from any other unknown reasons, sell the livestock and poultry related products without the inspection and quarantine certificate and the meat quality inspection certificate, or inject into animals or make animals have any drug or other chemical substance which helps to increase the amount of water reserved in animals and the survival rate of aquatic products in transit while such animals and aquatic products are in transit. Additionally, the Announcement stresses that where manufacturers of animal-derived food find that the food they have produced does not meet food safety standards or there is evidence attesting that such food is likely to do harm to human health, they shall cease production immediately, recall all of such food already launched and traded in the market, notify related operators and consumers of such circumstance, and record particulars on product recall and the notification.