Showing posts with label food scandals.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food scandals.. Show all posts

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Food scares: a great business opportunity - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
China's consumers do not trust the food produced in their own country, after many food scandals. That could also be a great business opportunity, says business analyst Shaun Rein in Barfblog, who looked at Weinberg's Inscatech — a global network of food spies.

Barfblog:
Weinberg’s company is developing molecular markers and genetic fingerprints to help authenticate natural products and sort genuine foodstuffs from the fakes. Another approach companies are pursuing uses digital technology to track and record the provenance of food from farm to plate. “Consumers want to know where products are from,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, citing surveys the Shanghai-based consultancy conducted with consumers and supermarket operators. 
Services that help companies mitigate the reputational risk that food-fraud poses is a “big growth area,” according to Rein. “It’s a great business opportunity,” he said. “It’s going to be important not just as a China play, but as a global play, because Chinese food companies are becoming part of the whole global supply chain.” 
Some of the biggest food companies are backing technology that grew out of the anarchic world of crypto-currencies. It’s called blockchain, essentially a shared, cryptographically secure ledger of transactions.
More in Barfblog.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you interested in more stories by Shaun Rein? Do check out this list.  

Monday, July 18, 2016

Tough rules for instant formula - Mark Schaub

Mark Schaub
Mark Schaub
A range of food scandals with milk powder for babies has caused a wild-west market for mainly foreign instant formula, doing good business in China. Lawyer Mark Schaub warns that regulators are catching up, and new tough registration rules face a deadline for October 1, hard to manage for import products, he writes in Lexology.

Mark Schaub:
New PRC regulations have just been issued that will have a substantive impact on infant formula manufacturers – both international and domestic. 
The Administration Measures for the Registration of Formulas of Infant Formula Milk Powder (“Registration Measures”) was officially published on June 6, 2016 by China Food and Drug Administration (“CFDA”) some eight months after the CFDA released its draft for public comment (“Draft”). The Registration Measures will become effective on October 1, 2016 and their genesis can be found in the PRC Food Safety Law of 2015. 
According to Registration Measures and new Food Safety Law effective since last year, the formulas for all infant formula products manufactured and/or sold in China must be registered with CFDA, otherwise such products may not manufactured or sold. Formula registration is a new approach of PRC government aiming to improve the safety of infant formula products. The Registration Measures have specified the application scope, process, and other related issues. It will have substantial impact on various domestic and foreign diary companies, regardless of their reliance on traditional trade model or cross-border e-commerce. ... 
As the Registration Measures would become effective on October 1, 2016, as such, unless the laws stipulated otherwise, the infant formula milk powder manufactured in and imported to China via the trade in goods would subject to this Registration Measures sooner. It is important to note the complexity and time limits in respect of registration it is recommended that both domestic or foreign manufacturing enterprises engaging in production of infant formula milk powder to start preparing for and initiating registration procedures as quickly as possible. 
Time is ticking – it should be noted that PRC Ministry of Finance regulations[2] require that registration requirements for infant formula will come into force on January 1, 2018. Accordingly, although there is still time for companies to register but the clock is ticking. Brands relying strongly upon the cross-border ecommerce channel should start registration preparations immediately. It is likely that supervisory requirements and procedures for formula products which have not been imported to China via general trade will become more complex and subject to more scrutiny.
More in Lexology. 

Mark Schaub is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more experts who can help you to manage your China risk as the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.