Toys News
- Landmark toy, food recall systems go into effect
Date: 3-Sep-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA'S fi rst nationwide recall systems for unsafe food and toys came into effect Friday in one of the strongest steps taken to improve the nation's product safety.
The landmark recall systems, put in place by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, follow an earlier system set up for defective cars in 2005.
The regulations require manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control authorities when defects are found.
Vendors are also required to stop sales and notify their suppliers or producers if they discover safety problems.
Producers are subject to fi nes up to triple the product value, and vendors will face fi nes from 1,000 yuan (US$133) to 50,000 yuan for failure to follow the rules, said Liu Zhaobin, chief of the quality administration's department of policy and regulation.
Manufacturers are ordered to take measures including replacements or refunds to mitigate the effects of unsafe food or toys.
Producers must launch timely investigations of defects, and when necessary, the quality watchdogs at and above the provincial levels should supervise their efforts.
Food producers are required to set up archives recording all information on food production and sales and ensure that root causes of safety problems can be found immediately.
Toy fi rms should stop production and sales and recall products when defects are found in their toys even if they meet the nation's quality laws and other safety regulations.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine will oversee the new recall systems.
'The general administration is calling on all its offi cials and employees to fully study, fully use and fully implement the regulations,'according to a statement posted Friday on his administration's Web site.
The government took the measures after the safety of Chinese-made products became a major concern at home and abroad as a result of recent product health scares.
Chinese-made toys came under scrutiny this summer after a series of recalls by Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker.
Chinese offi cials have said Mattel should share a large part of the blame because of insuffi cient inspections and poor designs on its part.
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