Newsletter
DOH BANS USE OF BFS FILE CODES IN FOOD LABELING AND ADVERTISING
The Department of Health (DOH) stated in its order dated 4 February 2005 that from 1 April 2005, foodstuffs advertisements may not quote the file reference codes of documents issued by the DOH's Bureau of Food Safety (BFS), or wording of an equivalent meaning, and that from 1 July 2005, such codes may not be displayed on foodstuff labeling.
The purpose of the pre-production formulation review of foodstuffs, currently provided to do-mestic manufacturers by the DOH, is to identify the nature of the formulation of the products that they intend to produce, thereby preventing the use in foodstuffs of raw materials which might to unsafe to consumers. The DOH also requires that imported foodstuffs in the form of capsules or tablets (i.e., forms similar to those used for pharmaceutical products) must have product registration as foodstuffs with the DOH before importation. The DOH will then issues a notice to the Customs, to facilitate customs clearance. Both measures above are primarily intended to determine whether products are indeed of the nature of foodstuffs rather than pharmaceuticals, and in neither case does the DOH make any de-termination as to whether the products concerned have any health benefits.
The DOH has recently become aware that en-terprises often inappropriately use BFS docu-ment codes on product labeling, in promotional materials, and in advertisements, in such a way as to mislead consumers into believing that the products have been licensed or approved by the DOH, or that all foodstuffs require a BFS code number. Some wholesalers and retail chains also demand that BFS codes be shown on product labeling, which creates difficulties for manu-facturers. Some enterprises even deliberately display BFS codes on the packaging of unau-thorized pharmaceuticals in order to mislead consumers into believing that they are foodstuffs, thus posing a severe threat to consumers' health.
For these reasons, the DOH has decided to pro-hibit the use of BFS document codes or wording of an equivalent meaning in foodstuffs adver-tising and on foodstuffs labeling. However, to give manufacturers a buffer period, if goods of-fered for sale before 1 July 2005 bear a BFS document code, goods using the same printed packaging and with the same batch number as those already offered for sale may be offered until their sell-by date.
If foodstuff labeling or advertisements are found to contain a BFS document code or wording of an equivalent meaning in breach of the above ban, penalties will be imposed pursuant to Arti-cle 9 of the Food Hygiene Control Act, and the DOH will publish the names of the offending enterprises and products.
The DOH also announced in its order dated 28 January 2005, changes to its operational proce-dures for the pre-production formulation review of foodstuffs produce by domestic manufacturers. Henceforth, before submitting an application, an enterprise should first conduct a check of all the ingredients and raw materials used in the product. If they are all ingredients traditionally used in foodstuffs, or officially listed as raw materials approved for use in foodstuffs, then the manu-facturer need not apply for a review. If a manufacturer receives no notification from the DOH within 60 days after filing an application for review, this means that the formulation con-cerned is acceptable. If the review raises doubts as to the food safety of a product, the DOH will notify the manufacturer that the product so for-mulated may not be supplied as a foodstuff.
The DOH has also been discussing with relevant agencies as to whether to abolish the requirement for product registration of imported foodstuffs in the form of tablets or capsules, and subject such foodstuffs to the Regulations Concerning the Inspection of Food Imports as before, in the same way as other foodstuffs.