BEIJING—The United States—China Health Products Association (USCHPA) submitted its comments and suggestions to China’s National People’s Congress Legal Committee focused on articles 65 and 66, which are focused on dietary supplements and health foods.
The articles are part of the new Food Safety Law Draft that was circulated for public comment at the beginning of July 2014.
USCHPA has been sharing information with both the Chinese and the U.S. governments about China’s dietary supplement industry since 2010. These efforts have led China to adopt a notification system for certain ingredients. USCHPA executive director Jeff Crowther said this is a step in the right direction, but warned that most formula-based products or ingredients still need to go through China Food and Drug Administration, which can take two or three years.
The entire report can be viewed here. The English section of the report begins on page 14.
In October 2013, USCHPA warned the Chinese government that its plan to crack down on the dietary supplement firms that import their products labeled as “food" could force multinational companies to withdraw from the market because the process for obtaining approval to sell a product as a “health food" is long and expensive.