On April 21, 2011, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on Strictly Cracking Down on Illegal Food Additive Activities and Effectively Strengthening the Supervision of Food Additives" (hereinafter referred to as the Notice). The Notice outlined a crackdown on various illegal activities that endanger food safety, including illegal additive activities, and required the Ministry of Health to formulate national standards for new varieties of food additives.
The release of food additive standards will be scheduled. The notice requires the Ministry of Health to formulate national standards for new varieties of food additives, and to formulate and publish general safety standards for compound food additives and food additive labeling standards by the end of 2011. For food additives for which there are currently no national standards, relevant enterprises or industry organizations can apply to designate product standards by referring to international organizations or relevant national standards, in accordance with relevant regulations. The Ministry of Health, together with relevant departments, should expedite the designation of food additive standards. The Ministry of Health and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine should formulate and issue relevant measures as soon as possible to ensure smooth production licensing and regulatory coordination before the completion of standard designation.
Food enterprises play a crucial role in food safety supervision. The notice requires strengthening corporate integrity and self-discipline, and proposes that by the end of 2011, all regulatory departments should establish food safety credit files for all food producers and operators according to their systems. At the same time, food and food additive industry organizations should earnestly assume their industry self-discipline responsibilities, actively organize enterprises to conduct self-inspection and rectification and internal supervision, strengthen industry supervision and training, promptly identify problems in the industry, and publicly criticize those that fail to promptly identify and report problems.
Pre-cooked Food Standards
On February 6, 2026, the National Health Commission released the "National Food Safety Standard for Pre-cooked Foods" (Draft for Public Comment), soliciting public opinions. The standard emphasizes strengthened management of food contaminants and additives. It also stresses principles for the use of food additives, prohibiting the use of preservatives and minimizing the use of food additives.
