Health Foods on China market are divided into the domestic health food and the imported health food, consumers could distinguish them by approval registration number. It would be domestic health food if the following word after “国食健字” is “G”, which is the phonetic alphabet of 'domestic in Chinese. And, it would be imported health food if the following word after “国食健字” is “J”, which is the phonetic alphabet of imported in Chinese.
Currently, the main differences in supervision of domestic and imported health food are the registration of products and the examination of production condition.
Regarding to product registration, in general, imported health food is more strictly regulated than domestic health food. imported health food, other than supplementary vitamins and minerals, needs to be registered when being imported for the first time. For domestic health food, it needs to be registered only if the food contains ingredients not listed in the Health Food Raw Materials Directory. With the renewal of the directory, types of registered imported health food will be more than that of registered domestic one. Besides, imported health food might require other dossiers.
Regarding to the examination of production condition, domestic manufacturers need to acquire production permit of health food before the actual production of health food. Currently, Chinese government does not apply such examination to health food manufacturers abroad, only requests certificates approving the health food safely sold on a market, such as certificate for manufacturing issued by authority of the country of origin and product certificate certifying the food is on the market for more than 1 year.
In addition, imported health food shall also meet other requirements of imported food.
