China’s AQSIQ Releases 2018 National Inspection Plan for Product Quality
In September 2017, the General Administration of Quality Inspection General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) collected public comments on the “Product quality national supervision and sampling catalogue for 2018”, specifically focusing on the relevant ministries and commissions, market supervision and management departments, industry associations and inspection agencies. By the end of October 2017, AQSIQ had received extensive public feedback, covering 8 major categories of textile, electronic and electrical products, light industrial products, building and decoration, agricultural production, machinery and security, electrical and material, and food related products. Following relevant laws and regulations, and in consideration of its technical testing capacities, AQSIQ has incorporated all products of high public concern into the national supervision and sampling plan.
In 2018, the AQSIQ will enhance supervision of products from three aspects: production license management, supervision &sampling and risk management. The emphasis of the supervision will focus on six areas in which food related products included.
As for food related products, the competent authority will focus on the risk monitoring and process risk monitoring of products, where it has undertaken to carry out risk monitoring for 13 products such as food paper products and 10 processes such as the curing of composite film. The AQSIQ will increase spot supervision and inspection tasks focusing on the four materials of plastic, paper and paperboard, metal and glass in contact with food. Meanwhile, the AQSIQ will also conduct special supervision and spot checks on the products out of schedule when this service is required.
The related sampling scope and inspection standards will be based on the relevant national standards for food safety, such as GB4806.6-2016 “food safety national standard-food contact plastic resin”, GB4806.8-2016 “Food Safety National Standard- food contact paper and paperboard”, GB4806.9-2016 “Food Safety National Standard- food contact metal materials and products”, GB4806.5-2016 “Food Safety National Standard- food contact glass products”, etc. Therefore, enterprises should check the compliance of all the products according to relevant national standards before they are placed on the market to ensure operations run smoothly.