On 9 Jun 2014, MoA issued a notice to its provincial feed management offices to standardize the management of feed flavors and some flavor producers.
Feed flavor refers to the feed additive mixture added with flavor substances and other carriers or adjuvants, which aims at improving feed palatability and increasing animal consumption. Some flavor products can be mixed with other feed flavorings, feeding attractants, acidity regulators or antioxidants to enhance the efficacy or maintain the quality of product.
Feed flavor producers should obtain the production license and approval document of the product under the “Regulations on Administration of Feeds and Feed Additives”. The producer should file applications and test reports to the competent authority of feed management at a provincial level. The authority will issue the approval document on a “one product, one approval document” basis.
The authority is likely to categorize products according to their flavor type. If several products produced by a single producer fall into the same category, the producer may choose a representative product in the category and validate the major common ingredient in these products, bypassing the need to validate each product separately. If the flavor product is mixed with more than one flavoring substance, the content of flavor substances can be measured and validated by their culminative functional effect instead of measuring and validating each substance individually. The provincial authority will issue the production license to the qualified producer and mark “feed flavoring substance” on the license instead of specifying the name of each flavoring substances in the product. If other feed addictive substances (habit forming) are used in the product, the product will be labeled using the generic name of the addictive substance.
It is required by the “Regulations on Administration of Feeds and Feed Additives” that new feed and feed addictive should be appraised by the competent authority before commercialization. If the imported feed or feed additives are not yet permitted for production or use in China, it should be registered with authorities. Feed additive producers (and additive premixed feed producers) should apply to the provincial authority of feed management for a production license. The provincial authority will check the application material and conduct an on-site inspection of the producer and submit the preliminary opinion to the feed management authority under the State Council which will review the application material and make a final decision on the application, (The decision on the application from other feed producers is made by the provincial authority). After being issued with the production license, the feed additive and premixed feed producer should apply to the provincial authority for an approval document for each of their products.
