Why Ingredient Review is critical to get into food markets of Mainland China and Taiwan

Lavender is a common herb in western world and so lavender-drink should be a common food drink as well, right ? No, it is not as you try to get into the markets of Mainland China or Taiwan.

Somebody would find out that lavender is a herb expressly forbidden to be used for food in Mainland China. In a notice issued in 2015, the original MOH (now is NHFPC) declared that “Due to the lack of relevant information such as edible parts of lavender, methods of eating, food history, population, and safety, the management methods cannot be determined. … To turn lavender …. into an ordinary food raw material, it should be in accordance with the procedures stipulated in “Novel Food Ingredient” application. Lavender oil, however, is an allowed flavoring under Chinese regulations.

In general, it is important to verify whether ingredients used in the recipe appear on any “black list” issued by NHFPC. You will need to get the approval from the governmental agency on this kind of novel ingredient to have it in any food product. A product containing this kind of ingredient is also in the same situation.

It can also happen that some herbal ingredients appear on the Chinese pharmacopoeia, in which case it becomes critical to understand whether these ingredients can be considered both traditional Chinese medicine ingredients and food ingredients.

Similar situation with importing into Taiwan, “Non-traditional food ingredient List” authorized by Taiwan FDA is the one you need to comply with. Actually, this is the concept that similar to NDI of USFDA and Novel food of EFSA. Of course, it may spend time. It, however, is not mission impossible. To hire local expert is the best choice that we will suggest.

In addition to those special ingredient, the food additives are also regulated by the authorities both in Mainland China and Taiwan. To avoid that your products been detained at the customs or forced to recall from the shelf, we will also suggest to have ingredient review for your product before export to any country.