Japan Proposes Standards for Functional Foods with Natural Extracts

Japan's health ministry recently issued a proposal, the purpose is to formulate with natural extract of functional food production and processing standards. The main aim of this proposal was to strengthen the supervision of similar products, especially in the aftermath of a damage event kobayashi pharmaceutical monascus products. The incident caused the extensive concern of the society from all walks of life, make people for functional food safety question, it is necessary to formulate the corresponding production and processing standards, to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers.

The main elements of the proposal include the following:

1. The definition and terminology standard: according to the various types of functional foods containing natural extract ingredients, formulate unified definition and terminology standards, regulation and in order to facilitate production.

2. Qualification, personnel and quality management system of production enterprises: conduct qualification audit of production enterprises to ensure their ability to produce functional food; Put forward clear requirements for the personnel and quality management system of production enterprises to ensure the standardization and specialization of the production process.

3. Safety verification: enterprises must verify the safety of natural extracted ingredients in their products to ensure that the products are harmless to the human body.

4. Verification of hygienic control, traceability management, and production process changes in the production process: detailed regulations should be made on hygienic control, traceability management, and production process changes in the production process, so as to facilitate traceability of problems and ensure the stability of the production process.

5. Adverse reaction reporting procedures: establishing adverse reaction reporting procedures, in order to timely detection and treatment products there may be a problem.

The proposal is now at the stage for public comment, will be ended on August 16. Through this standard, the Japanese government hopes to strengthen the supervision of functional foods containing natural ingredients, improve product safety, and avoid similar incidents from happening again. This measure shows that the Japanese government attaches great importance to consumer rights and interests, and also provides a useful reference for our country in functional food regulation.