China adopted a new food safety law

On 24 April 2015, China adopted a revised version of its food safety law (FSL) which will be implemented as of 1 October 2015. These changes strengthen Chinese food safety policy and are the first since the originally adopted Food safety Law in 2009. China and the EU are important trading partners for Agri-food. In 2014, the EU exported to China agricultural and fishery products worth over €7.7 billion.

China ranks on 3rd place of our export destinations for agricultural products. The EU imported for a total value of over €4.6 billion agricultural and fishery products.

During previous years, China had circulated several draft texts on the revision of the FSL. The EU provided several comments on the draft texts circulated and expressed concerns on some articles to ensure that trade could continue to take place under safe conditions in line with international rules. Although not all EU comments have been considered by China, the EU is pleased to note that several of its comments provided have been taken into account. A very important issue for the EU has been China's removal of the ban on the infant milk formulae production under OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and subcontracting which was proposed in one of the draft texts of the FSL. This clause would have caused an unjustified negative impact on exports from the EU as the products provided by the EU meet the highest food safety requirements.

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