"Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling Inspection (Draft for Comments)" Publicly Solicits Opinions

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued an announcement soliciting public comments on the draft “Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling and Testing” (Draft for Comments). The announcement points out that, in order to further improve the quality of food safety sampling and testing work, SAMR will carry out a revision of the “Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling and Testing,” and has researched and formed the draft “Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling and Testing” (Draft for Comments), which is now open to public comment.

According to relevant documents, the Food Sampling and Testing Division organized revisions to the original “Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling and Testing” (SAMR Order No. 15) to form the “Measures for the Administration of Food Safety Sampling and Testing” (Revised Draft for Comments). In terms of the main revisions, it treats identifying problems and potential risks as the starting point for sampling and testing work. The food safety sampling and testing work is divided into supervision sampling and risk sampling, with separate chapters listed for each. It strengthens risk sampling, expands the entities that implement risk sampling, clarifies the circumstances under which risk sampling is to be implemented, making the sampling and testing more flexible, and also specifies the methods for assessing and reporting the results of risk sampling.

At the same time, it optimizes the content of information disclosure and establishes a mechanism to revoke the disclosure of information about unqualified results from food sampling and testing. First, it optimizes the content of information disclosure by market regulatory departments on food sampling and testing, and will no longer list in detail the specific content that unqualified result information must include; localities may determine this based on their actual circumstances. Second, in reference to regulatory rules and systems such as the “Provisions on the Disclosure of Administrative Penalty Information in Market Regulation,” it clarifies that the disclosure of food safety supervision sampling and testing results should be revoked in a timely manner after the expiration of three years, and disclosure should be stopped.

In addition, focusing on key and difficult issues, it addresses problems strongly reflected at the grassroots level. First, in terms of sampling of edible agricultural products. In response to issues raised by grassroots regulatory departments and contracted testing institutions regarding the difficulty of having edible agricultural products accompanied during sampling and the low efficiency, it will no longer require mandatory accompaniment. It clarifies that sampling of edible agricultural products may be conducted in the form of homogeneous backup samples. Second, in terms of online sampling. It clarifies that online food safety sampling and testing is carried out by sampling in the manner of consumers purchasing food; when purchasing samples, there is no need to inform online food producers and operators of the purpose and use of the purchase. It also clarifies that the corresponding sampling documents do not need to be signed for confirmation by the sampled entity. Third, in terms of re-testing unqualified results. It clarifies that contracted testing institutions should establish a re-test procedure for testing results. When test results are unqualified or in doubt, samples shall be tested again and relevant records shall be retained to ensure that the results are accurate and reliable. For unqualified results in the microbiological, mite, and parasitic items, it clarifies that key technical personnel in the relevant testing fields (not the same person as the sample testing personnel) shall re-examine key factors affecting the results during the testing process.

(SAMR official website)

(Editor: Wang Can, Lin Chen)

Keywords:

                                                            Food