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Recently, the safety issue of food contact products occurred frequently, such as lubricating oil pollution of soybean milk machine, heavy metals over-limit of crockery, etc. Therefore, the public are paying great attention to these problems and seeking to buy quality assured products. However, there are so many kinds of products in the market and customers have difficulty in distinguishing high quality goods. Fortunately, General Administration of Quality Supervision has attached great importance to it as well, and China Quality Certification Centre (CQC) has launched food contact product safety certification which guarantees the safety of food contact products. The product which obtained this certification is permitted to put the “Food Contact Safe” mark on product, package, nameplate or instruction.

Joyoung, a leading enterprise in kitchen appliance industry in China, has become the first enterprise that obtained the food contact safety certificate last September. It is foreseeable that product with the “Food Contact Safe” mark will be more popular with consumers.

“Food Contact Safe” Mark

It is advisable for enterprises to do the food contact product safety certification as early as possible to seize the market opportunities. As the government is strongly supporting this certification, the approval period will be much shorter, about 1 to 3 months.

How to apply for the food contact product safety certification?

In the first place, enterprises could choose the suitable certification mode, below is a table showing the three modes.

Table 1. Three certification modes

Mode	Procedures	Duration	Validity period	Notes
Mode 1	I. Product inspection II. Initial factory inspection III. Supervision after obtaining the certificate	3-6 months	Permanent	-
Mode 2	I. Product inspection II. Supervision after obtaining the certificate	1-3 months	Permanent	Only for enterprises who have obtained other CQC product certificate or have the domestic production license.
Mode 3	I. Product inspection	1-3 months	One year	-

For oversea enterprises or importers, if they have obtained other CQC product certificates, they could choose mode 2, which is the most convenient and cost-effective choice, or they could choose mode 1 or mode 3. It should be noted that if their products are electric appliance such as coffee-maker and electric cooker, they have to obtain CCC certificate issued by CQC before placing their products on the market of China. Therefore, this kind of enterprises could choose mode 2 as well. For other enterprises whose products are pots or pans which do not need the compulsory CCC certificate, they could only choose mode 1 or mode 3: Mode 1 costs much time as CQC should organize investigators to do the initial factory inspection overseas; mode 3 has less constraint but has to re-test the product 3 months before the certificate expires. Enterprises could choose the appropriate mode according to their own conditions. Here take mode 1 as an example, introducing the application procedures in the following table.

Table 2. Application procedures for certification mode 1

No.	Procedures	Details
1	Online application	Fill out the application form on www.cqc.com.cn
2	Materials submission	1. The application form (print version); 2. The survey form of factory inspection 3. The registration certificate of applicant, manufacturer and factory (e.g. business license); 4. The copy of contract between manufacturer and importer/distributor, if the applicant is the importer/distributor; 5. The description of food contact product; 6. The test report of food contact product/ component; 7. Other relevant documents.
3	Product inspection	Send the representative samples to the designated laboratory according to the requirements of CQC.
4	Initial factory inspection	CQC organize experts to investigate the factory quality assurance ability and the products consistency.
5	Examination and verification	CQC review the result of the product inspection and initial factory inspection, and then issue the food contact product safety certificate after approval.
6	Supervision after obtaining the certificate	CQC conduct regular supervision and sampling inspection.

Besides, there are several highlights need to be noted when doing the online application. First, applicant should have a CQC website account; second, the applicant shall have a permanent Chinese representative office or appoint a Chinese agent to fill in the application form; finally, the corresponding Chinese National Standards for each food contact material of product shall be confirmed by applicant, which means that applicant should have intimate knowledge of relevant Chinese national regulations and standards. Therefore, seeking for professional Chinese agents to apply for the food contact product safety certification is a convenient and time-saving choice for oversea enterprises.

CIRS has rich experience in food contact product regulatory compliance that could analyze the required safety standards accurately according to relevant Chinese National Standards in Appendix 1 of the Safe Certification Rules for Food Contact Product (Chinese version download). Please pay attention to the GB name to identify the appropriate National Standard. If you have any other questions, please contact us at service@cirs-group.com.

Original Reference: http://www.cqc.com.cn/www/chinese/c/2016-04-21/532668.shtml

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Safe Certification of Food Contact Material and Product Issued by CQC