Procedure of Compliant Access for General Food Imported to China

Publication date：2022-05-17

What is “food”?

“Food” refers to any finished products or raw materials provided for people to eat or drink and any product that has traditionally served as both food and traditional Chinese medicine, excluding the products used or medical purposes.

--Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China

What is “general food”?

Food supplement, formula food for special medical use, infant formula food and other special food are strictly administrated and supervised by the State.

--Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China

“General food” is not a standard name but a concept related to “special food”. Any food except special food is general food. For example, rice, edible oil, vinegar, ham, milk, beverage, biscuits, cans, ice-cream, quick-frozen dumplings, fried chips, candies, tea, wine, chocolate, honey are all general food.

How to define “imported general food”?

Food produced, packaged and finally sold by production enterprises outside the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan)
Intended to be imported and sold within the territory of People's Republic of China
Having the characteristics of food, not capsules, spray, drops and other forms
Complying with national standards and/or industry standards of relevant food types, and the requirements of laws and regulations for imported food

Flow chart of imported general food compliant access

Dossiers of imported general food compliant access

NO.	Item	Content
1	Packaging	Foreign language design draft or photo of the minimum marketing packaging(including inner packaging if any) and its Chinese translation, and it should be complete and clear.
2	Formula	All ingredients and proportioning&dosage(the total is 100%) on outer packaging(required by China customs), English names of the ingredients, INCI names, COA, etc. It should be complete.
3	Test report	COA of origin country, China GB test report. China GB tests include food quality test, nutrient content test, label claims test(if any). Samples can be provided to conduct GB test in China
4	Registration of overseas production enterprise	[NO.248] and [NO.249 ]Decree of General Administration of Customs of China, implemented on Jan. 1 2022. The registration NO. shall be consistent with the product type
5	Chinese trademark registration	Registration certificate of product trademark or notification of acceptance shall be consistent with the product type
6	Other certification documents	packaging claims like patents, designated sponsors, vegetarian diet, gluten free, etc.

ZMUni food compliance services in China include:

Food labeling review
Food ads promotion compliance
Food supplement registration in China
Food supplement filing in China
Formula registration of infant formula milk powder
Registration of formula food for special medical use
Novel food ingredient application
Registration of overseas production enterprise of food imported to China
Food testing
Food export compliance
Training, database, and research
Food ODM
Product authentication
Other services

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ZMUni Chinese Cosmetic Regulation Compliance Centre 中贸合规中心

Procedure of Registration Application for Food Supplement in China

Food Compliance Service List

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