Regulation on the Administration of Pet Feed-MOA Decree 20
On April 27th 2018, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China issued Decree №20, which includes “Regulation on the Administration of Pet Feed”(abbr. Petfeed regulation) and series of other regulations. Enforcement will be started on June 1st 2018.
This regulation is formulated based on the “Administrative Measures for Feed and Feed Additives”(enforcement on 2014) & complementary regulations, and for the purpose of strengthening the supervision of pet feed production, administration and importation, and ensuring the quality and safety of pet feed products.
New Pet Feed Regulation has various and profound impacts on MOA Register License for foreign pet feed manufacturers who have intentions to export or have been exporting pet feed products to China. It represents another step in the stricter regulation of pet feed supervisions and administrations.
1. Pet feed definition and category.
Pet feed administration regulations have been separately published, “Regulation on the Administration of Pet Feed”, which regulates pet feed definition and imported products categories required to be registered by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the P.R.C.(MOA License)
In new Petfeed regulation, it defines 3 categories:
Compound pet feed (complete pet food for pets‘ daily nutritional needs)；
Additive Premix pet Feed (nutritional pet food needs for aminophenol, vitamin, minerals, enzyme, etc.)
and other pet feed (snack food, inducement purpose, dog chews etc.).
Foreign companies must apply MOA license for first 2 categories, namely Compound pet feed and Additive Premix pet feed, in order to export legally into China market.
Besides, all pet feed ingredients and substances should be listed within:
Feed Ingredient Catalogue (MOA Decree №1773. Enforced on January 1, 2013) and
Feed Additive Catalogue (MOA Decree №2045 (Enforced on February 1, 2014);
2. Existing MOA License validity problems due changes on new regulations.
*MOA License issued before June 1st 2018 under old regulations requirements (Regulation on the Administration of Feed and Feed Additives, 2011) remains to be valid within its validity period.
Renewal register license will be processed per new regulation requirements upon expiration.
*Foreign companies whose pet feed products have been exported and sold to China in gray route without MOA license, must obtain register License before September 1st 2019.
* Pet direct consumption additive premix foreign companies who have already obtained MOA License before June 1st 2018, have to apply new register license per requirements of new regulations before September 1st 2019.
3. Label requirements under new regulations.
According to “Regulation on the Administration of Pet Feed”, Pet feed exporters should comply with new label and sanitary regulations.
Pet feed name should be displayed on conspicuous part of the label with its common name.
*Compound pet feed common name should be marked as any of below and show applicable animal species and life stages in Chinese.
“宠物配合饲料”(Compound Pet Feed),“宠物全价饲料”(Complete Pet Feed), “全价宠物食品”(Complete Pet Food) or “全价”(Complete).
To meet pets’ nutritional needs under certain physiological and pathological conditions, compound pet feed should be marked with the word “处方”(prescription) in Chinese. Applicable animal should be indicated as well.
* Additive Premix pet Feed common name should be marked as any of below and show applicable animal species and life stages in Chinese.
“宠物添加剂预混合饲料”(Additives premix pet feed), “补充性宠物预混合饲料”(complementary premix pet feed ) or “宠物预混合饲料”(Premix pet feed).
*Other pet feed common name should be marked as “宠物零食”(Snack food) and show applicable animal species and life stages in Chinese.
Besides, enterprise operating feed or feed additive shall not open then re-package feed or feed additive and shall not re-process or add any substances into feed or feed additive.
4. Strengthen supervision and administration on pet feed sales
According to “Regulation on the Administration of Pet Feed”, it is forbidden for China enterprise to operate and sell Imported Compound Pet Feed and Imported Additives Premix Pet Feed, which comes without MOA License.
Where an enterprise operating feed or feed additive commits one of the following acts, the feed administration department under the people’s government at county level shall order it to make a correction, confiscate the illegal gains and the illegally operated products; impose a fine of RMB2,000~RMB20,000 if the value of the goods is less than RMB10,000; and impose a fine of 2~5 times of the value of the goods if the value of the goods is more than RMB10,000. If the circumstance is grave, the operation shall be ordered to stop and the Industrial and Commercial Administration Department shall be informed to revoke the business license. If a crime is constituted, the criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law:
(1) Reprocessing feed or feed additive or adding substances into it.
(2) Operating feed or feed additive without product label, production license, or certificate of product quality;
(3) Operating feed or feed additive that has no product authentication code;
(4) Operating feed produced with any substances not in the list of feed raw materials and the list of feed additives or in the list of drug feed additives;
(5) Operating feed or feed additive that has no MOA License or import registration certificate or that is being restricted to operate.
For more information, please contact jq@aqsiq.com
