Food Safety in The People's Republic of China - Government Departments - State Food and Drug Administration

State Food and Drug Administration

The State Food and Drug Administration of China (SFDA) was founded in 2003 as part of China's efforts to improve food safety. The SFDA is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the other health, food, and drug agencies. It is "directly under the State Council, which is in charge of comprehensive supervision on the safety management of food, health food and cosmetics and is the competent authority of drug regulation." The SFDA encompasses ten departments that regulate and oversee different aspects of food and drug law. These include the General Office Department of Planning and Finance, the Department of Policy and Regulations, the Department of Food Safety Coordination, the Department of Food Safety Supervision, the Department of Drug Registration, the Department of Medical Devices, the Department of Drug Safety and Inspection, the Department of Drug Market Compliance, the Department of Personnel and Education, and the Department of International Cooperation.

The general duties of the SFDA are:

1. To draft health laws, regulations and policies; to propose health development programs and strategic goals; to formulate technical protocols, health standards and to supervise their enforcement.
2. To propose regional health programs, to conduct overall planning and to coordinate the nationwide allocation of health resources.
3. To formulate working programs and policies on rural health, as well as maternal and child health care; to guide the implementation of primary health programs and technical protocols on maternal and child health care.
4. To implement the policy of "Prevention First" and to conduct health education to the general public. To develop programs on the prevention and treatment of diseases that endanger the health of the population; to organize the comprehensive prevention and treatment of major diseases; to publicize the quarantine list of communicable diseases and the surveillance list of infectious diseases.
5. To guide the reform of medical institutions; to formulate criteria for medical practitioners, medical quality and service delivery, and to supervise their enforcement.
6. To regulate by law blood collection at blood or plasma centers and the quality of blood for clinical transfusion.
7. To draft key national development programs on medical science, technology and education; to organize key national medical and health researches; to guide the dissemination and application of medical achievements. To administer the affiliated institutions.
8. To supervise communicable disease prevention and treatment, food health, occupational, environmental, radiological, and school health. To formulate food and cosmetics quality control protocols and be responsible for their accreditation.
9. To formulate national development programs on health professionals and professional ethics protocols for health personnel; to draft and implement staffing standards for health institutions and accreditation criteria for health personnel.
10. To organize and guide multi-lateral and bilateral governmental and non-governmental health and medical cooperation and exchanges and medical aid to other countries, to participate in major health events initiated by international organizations. To coordinate medical and health exchanges and collaborations between China and the World Health Organization and other international organizations.
11. To implement the policy of developing both western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.
12. To do the routine work of the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee.
13. To coordinate and dispatch technical health capacity nationwide, to assist local governments and relevant agencies in emergency response to major epidemics and diseases and in epidemic and disease prevention and control.
14. To undertake other work as designated by the State Council.