China to step up monitoring of foreign baby formula sold online
Domestic output to be made safer, with more monitoring of online sales of foreign brands
The State Council says it will step up the monitoring of foreign baby formula sold online and raise the safety standards of domestic dairy products.
Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council meeting yesterday that addressed food safety issues associated with mainland-made dairy goods, the State Council said on its website.
It acknowledged the crisis in consumer confidence over domestic infant formula and said it would nurture quality brands, describing it as an “urgent task”.
The State Council plans to standardise the breeding of dairy cattle and increase the scale of industry players by restructuring dairy corporations. It said formula will be managed as strictly as medicine, with an identification, authentication and tracking system so products can be traced back to their source.
It will also speed up the introduction of a regulatory system for online sales. The internet has been a major source for mainland parents to buy imported formula since Hong Kong introduced a limit of two tins per person for cross-border travellers in March. The following month, British retailers rationed sales of formula milk, blaming a surge in “unofficial exports” to China.
A task force dedicated to safeguarding the quality of infant formula will be established to strengthen monitoring through the entire production chain. There will be a crackdown on unqualified milk collectors, and corporations producing substandard dairy products would he shut down.