Noon International: Food Trading Import Export

Is this the answer to calm the concern of China Food Safety? 

We have received further clarification as to the new regulations required by the China CIQ (China Inspection and Quarantine) for food products. 

All outer packaging is supposed to contain the following information to meet the CIQ’s guidelines:

1. Producer name (in Chinese), Export Quarantine Sanitarian Registered Number, Product name in Chinese, Lot number and production date to be printed or stamped on the outer carton.

2. A CIQ symbol will be added on the outer carton.  Diameter of the sticker will be 20mm, 30mm or 50mm depending on the carton size.

3. The location of above and symbol on the outer carton will be according to the local CIQ’s requirement (I guess this leaves room for ambiguity).  The location would be fixed but in no case to cover the customers information needs.

Inner package requirements if necessary:

1. A CIQ symbol would also be added to the retail packages, including retail box, pail, bags, etc.  The diameter will be 10mm.

2. If the inner package are a type of basket, sacks or other package style which is not suitable for adding a CIQ symbol, they will be exempted, but the exemption must be approved by the local CIQ of the producer. 

I wonder what this all means if the local CIQ and provincial CIQ or Central Government don’t agree?  It seems like local CIQ can have there own criteria but maybe I am just reading too much into it.
To give you an idea this is what it would look like:

Producer name (in Chinese): 银河食品 

Export Quarantined Sanitarian Registered Number: xxxx/xxxxx (total of 9 digits)

Product Name (in Chinese): 毛豆荚 

Lot number & Production date: xxxx (Julian date) or YYYY/MM/DD (year/month/day)
 

 

This will create some chaos as packers will have to get the China CIQ logo and all smaller packaging will probably have to get new artwork to incorporate the CIQ logo unless they sticker them but this I imagine will get messy and we will have CIQ stickers all over the place.

I guess the big question is will this new policy and CIQ logo affixed to the package give credability to China Food Safety?  And how will this be perceived by the consumer?

I hope this gives some clarity to the new requirements.  Will keep you posted on any further developments.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, China CIQ, CIQ Logo, China Food Safety, China Inspection and Quarantine

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

What is happening with China CIQ Inspection and Quarantine?  This seems to be still evolving and some uncertainty as to what and when and how it will all take place.  Supposedly it will officially start on September 1, 2007 but with all the China food safety issues they have already started certain phases of the new program. 

At present the CIQ are checking product by going to packers and taking samples and testing.  This has caused delays because it is taking at least 10 working days to get answers if not longer.  We are experiencing delays up to 3 weeks on some of our shipments.

They plan on starting on September 1, 2007 to start stickering cartons.  A CIQ Logo will be placed on the outer carton to show that it  has been inspected by the CIQ and approved.  They have yet to make a decision on retail pack if it will require a sticker on the polybag as well.  Of course this will add some extra cost and delays for the stickers and manual labor to sticker.

Now I have just learned that the Beijing CIQ will be sending staff to the province to supervise food safety, and the provincial CIQ will be sending them to the county for the same purpose for a 3 month period of time for training of the new regulations.

Further they will have CIQ staff located at the ports to inspect the cargo to ensure the product has been stickered with the CIQ logo.  I am not sure I like this step because what it means is that the containers after being loaded at the factory and sealed will have to have the seals broken and resealed.  I guess because they are officials nothing can or will happen after all they are the government.

Problems we can expect for the unforeseeable future – delays and more delays. 

The big question is will it work? Will it help to solve the China food  safety issues? 

Technorati Tags: Noon International, China food safety, CIQ, CIQ Logo, China  CIQ Inspection and Quarantine, Inspection and Quarantine

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

It looks like CIQ China (China Inspection and Quarantine) has decided that a way to tackle the China Food Safety Crisis is by forcing all producers approved by CIQ to place stickers containing its official logo in all master cartons, some producers in China say the CIQ logo must also be imprinted on the retail packs.
Please note that by Chinese law only approved CIQ producers are able to export edible products overseas.

My point here has to do with effort / reward meaning the effort is going to be considerable and I honestly have to say the rewards would be questionable. In other words I don’t think they are solving the real problem.

Why are they not solving the real problem? Because plant X which is CIQ certified and has all sorts of different international certificates could still be buying product from factory Y which doesn’t have any of the aforementioned. The only thing factory X has to do is to spare a couple of cartons stickered with the CIQ logo for factory Y to pack the product, same scenario will apply to retail packs.
So the final objective which is to stop noncertified facilities from packing products for export might not be totally achieved.

My long time mentor once told me customers you can always find however good reliable suppliers are hard to get a hold of. Here at Noon International, we have spent more than 30 years developing our suppliers in China and to this day we keep working with them on how to do things in a better fashion trying to exceed our customers’ demands.

Does this mean we are old fashioned traders in a world where reverse internet bid is a common way to do business?
What I think this means, is that we really CARE and have a high level of TRUST with our suppliers in China other might call this TRUE RELATIONSHIPS.

Does this make our products from China be safer? You bet it does.

As for the CIQ logo, the saga will continue…

Technorati Tags: Noon International, ciq logo,   china food safety

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites