Success Cases
Food Service Innovation
A client wanted to provide local coffee lovers a unique experience by allowing them to watch the roasting process in the same place they bought and sipped their favorite coffee. This brought up a novel case of reconciling licenses for both food service and manufacturing. To further complicate the situation, local standards specified that consumers could not freely visit and observe a food and beverage manufacturing site. Working with the client and local regulators, we successfully obtained a manufacturing license for the client and created a private standard to allow roasteries to also operate like coffee shops. Finally, we worked with district authorities to resolve the remaining issues around the land status.
Food Processing Standards
Nut producers and processors took advantage of a Chinese law allowing hydrogen peroxide for sterilization and used the chemical for bleaching. With no demonstrable scientific basis to use hydrogen peroxide for bleaching, the use of the chemical only serves to distort the appearance of nuts for Chinese consumers. We worked with regulators and, as result, new standards exclude hydrogen peroxide as an allowed food processing agent for nuts.
Exporters & Decree 248
In 2022, China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) enacted Decree 248, which requires that facility and product registrations for select food product imports into China must be completed and approved by GACC prior to shipment. In one complex case, a food manufacturer based outside China had licensed many original equipment manufacturers in the making of a finished product that it exported to China. The case raised challenging questions around certificates of origin and which parties should be responsible for registration. We worked with our client, the manufacturer, and GACC to resolve the situation in a simple and expedient way with minimal disruption to their business.
NGO Registration & Tax Free Permits
Enacted in January 2017, China’s Overseas Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Law requires foreign NGOs, including trade associations, to register and setup an office in China before they market their services and activities in China. Further, an organization’s foreign-based headquarters cannot contract a PR and marketing agency to conduct these activities. Since 2017, we have worked with many foreign NGOs and trade associations to register and ensure compliance with the law as enforced by China’s Public Security Bureau. We have also helped many of these same organizations successfully apply for tax-free status.
A Food Fraud Claim
A large U.S. food exporter came under intense negative public opinion, consumer complaints, and several class-action lawsuits after it was discovered that Chinese marketers had used the incorrect Chinese name for their product. The plaintiffs claimed that the misnomer amounted to food fraud, which carries significant penalties in China. We fought on behalf of our client and won all the related cases. Further, we worked directly with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to develop a new standard that clarified the issue and protects future companies in the same situation.
False Advertising Claims
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s main regulatory body for food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other consumer goods, sets strict guidelines for nutrition and structure/function claims. We routinely advise foreign and domestic companies on how to comply with these extensive and evolving guidelines. In the event of a false advertisement claim, we work with local SAMR offices to negotiate an equitable settlement.
