From March 1, 2020, 7 food regulations and 36 food standards will take effect. The implementation of these regulations and standards will bring new requirements for the approval of food production licenses and the approval and release of special food advertisements. In order to better help enterprises to implement laws and regulations, Antion has made a simple interpretation of the Interim Measures for the Examination and Administration of Advertisements for Medicines, Medical devices, Health Food and Food for Special Medical Purpose (hereinafter referred to as the Interim Measures) for your reference.

According to the Interim Measures, advertisements for medicines, medical devices, health foods, and food for special medical purposes (FSMP) are not permitted without examination. The Interim Measures has made systematic and comprehensive provisions on the legislative basis, scope of application, competent authorities, content standards, examination procedures and legal liabilities of advertisements for health food and FSMP. It mainly includes:

“Strict” examination, the Interim Measures stipulated that the content of advertisements shall be subject to the registration certificate or record certificate approved by the relevant supervisory and administrative department, as well as the product description of registration or record, and shall be strictly subject to the content standards.

The advertisements for health food shall clearly indicate that "Health food is not medicine and cannot replace medicine to treat diseases", and shall also clearly indicate the marks of health food, suitable crowds and unsuitable crowds. Advertisements for FSMP shall clearly indicate the suitable crowds, "not applicable to non-target crowds" and "please use under the guidance of a doctor or clinical nutritionist".

In terms of advertising language, it is not allowed to include "safe", "safe and non-toxic side effects", "little toxic side effects", etc.; It is not allowed to express or imply that the ingredients are "natural" and thus have a guarantee of safety; Do not include "hot sale, panic buying, trial" "family must, free treatment, free gift" and other inducement content, also "invalid refund, insurance company’s guarantee" and other assurance content are permitted.

Taking convenience and efficiency as the principle, according to the work requirement of "certificate separation" reform. Further optimizing all advertising review procedures to reduce the burden on advertising applicants, which include streamlining the certification materials, shortening the review period, extending the validity period of the advertising approval number, making it open for public inquiry, and implementing online processing.

The Interim Measures came into effect on March 1, 2020. The Interim Provisions on the release of Food Advertisements promulgated by Order No. 72 of the former state administration for industry and commerce on December 30, 1996 shall be abolished simultaneously.

If you want to know more about the upcoming regulations and standards, please click

Summary of regulations and standards to be implemented in March.