Shenzhen introduces new regulations for food safety sampling management

Recently, the Shenzhen City Market Supervision Administration of Guangdong Province has promulgated the “Regulations on the Administration of Food Safety Sampling Inspection (Draft for Soliciting Opinions)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Exposure Draft”), which stipulates that the law enforcement personnel or sampling personnel of the market supervision and management department of the city are conducting food safety inspections. In this case, samples must be obtained by way of purchase. Samples must not be taken from the manufacturer, and inspection fees and any other fees must not be collected from the sample-inspection unit; if the inspection results are qualified, law enforcement officers cannot “intercept” the sample after inspection. Donate to welfare agencies.

According to the Exposure Draft, the Bureau will include the sample inspection funds in the annual departmental budget and standardize the use of funds. "Samply samples shall be purchased, and inspection fees and any other fees may not be collected from the sampled units." Law enforcement officers cannot handle privately purchased samples. For the storage period after two months (from the sampling date), the Shenzhen Social Welfare Organization will be donated by the storage unit and the "Re-inspection Backup Sample Donation List" will be completed under the unified organization of the Municipal Bureau. In addition, the draft of the Opinions also stipulates that, in principle, at least 4 samplings shall be conducted annually for food enterprises, and at least sampling shall be conducted in principle for finished products produced by production units for food additives and food-related products.

In order to standardize on-site law enforcement, the draft of the Opinions stipulates that when quality monitoring is conducted, the sampler of the inspection agency shall present the Sample Inspection Notice for Food Safety to the sample inspection unit. After the sampling is completed, the sample inspection unit fills in the "Single Food Safety Sampling and Inspection Worksheet", which is brought back to the inspection agency by the sampler. The inspection agency will finish the inspection and submit it to the market supervision department. However, law enforcement personnel do not need to fulfill the two above-mentioned obligations when sampling in law enforcement.

According to the stipulations of the draft, if there are less than two law enforcement officers or inspectors, relevant personnel should not carry valid identification documents and other materials, and the sampling base does not meet the sampling plan and inspection technical requirements. In the case of products that pass the inspection of the factory, the company may reject the inspection by the inspection personnel. According to the regulations, law enforcement officers should seal samples in the face of food production units, and also take digital photographs before and after sealing the samples. Sampling personnel of inspection agencies can conduct sampling separately.

The Shenzhen Market Supervision Bureau requires that, without the consent of the Bureau, the inspection agency shall not open inspection reports, data or results, etc., and shall send inspection reports to the market supervision authorities after the inspection is completed. For substandard products, the Bureau will send the report and notice to the company within 5 working days. If the company disagrees with the inspection results, it may apply for re-inspection within 15 days of receiving the result. The City Council will reply within two working days. According to the Exposure Draft, if the re-inspection overturns the market supervision bureau's "nonconformity" conclusion, the re-inspection fee shall be borne by the agency's first inspection unit; if the re-inspection result is still "unqualified", the re-inspection fee will be paid by the company.

The reporter learned that although the draft of the draft has just been introduced, relevant regulations have been tried for some time. A supermarket worker told reporters that the sampling personnel are now very standardized and that they need to check which products they will purchase on their own, “very regular”.