FDA to Create List of Eligible U.S. Milk Product Exporters to China
The Food and Drug Administration is establishing a list U.S. milk product manufacturers and processors interested in exporting to China, according to a Jan. 7 update from the agency’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The list will be used to help U.S. manufacturers comply with the Chinese government’s new requirements for importing milk products into China. The Chinese government has said milk products from manufacturers and processors that are not on FDA’s list could be denied entry into China, said FDA.
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Participation on the list is voluntary. To qualify, companies can’t be subject to any pending judicial enforcement action or FDA warning letter, and would need to either have had an FDA inspection within the past three years, or be on the Interstate Milk Shippers List or be on the Agriculture Department’s “Dairy Plants Surveyed and Approved for USDA Grading Service list. The list will be updated quarterly, and firms that no longer meet the requirements because of a new court action or warning letter would be removed. For companies that have only been taken off the FDA or USDA lists, FDA would investigate whether safety concerns dictate removing the company from the China milk shippers list.
Companies may apply to be on the list beginning on Jan. 7, said FDA. The first posting and notification of the list to China will occur around April 30. In December of each even-numbered year, FDA will send a letter to manufacturers that are on the list requesting updated information and asking whether they still want to be listed. More information of the China milk shippers list is available (here).