The Chinese State Food and Drug Adminstration (SFDA) has been reorganized and renamed, according to Jeff Crowther, executive director of the US-China Health Care Products Association. The new name is the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), which is now elevated to a ministry-level agency.
With the change, there are now only three agencies involved in the regulation of food and supplement safety, Crowther said. These are: CFDA, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture. Previously, thirteen agencies were involved, Crowther said, which contributed to the country’s difficulty in responding to food safety scandals such as the melamine affair.
The picture won’t change much for those who import food or supplement products into the country, though. That will still be administered mostly through China’s Administration for Quality Supervistion Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).
