Announcement on Tightening Control of Health Food Products on AliExpress

Dear AliExpress sellers:

To regulate the development of the health food industry on AliExpress, raise the quality of health food products, and thus safeguard lives and property of consumers, AliExpress will release standards for product posting and impose quality control requirements for this industry. These efforts aim to further tighten control over the health food industry.

I. Applicable Scope

All subcategories under the third-level category ‘Beauty & Health>> Health Care>> Health Food (Vitamins & Supplements)’ on AliExpress.

II. Requirements for Merchant Inclusion

1. The health food industry has launched its merchant inclusion and is open to all legitimate brands.

2. Merchants shall firstly provide qualification documents that comply with the platform requirements. Merchants are allowed to post their products in the health food category only if the qualification has been approved.

3. See Requirements for Cross-Border Merchant Inclusion at: https://sell.aliexpress.com/zh/__pc/YZO0IAKNSq.htm?spm=5261.12352334.0.0.6cab1554hEERLm

    Italian merchants shall provide the SCIA Certificate for inclusion.

   Spanish merchants shall provide the Food Health Registration Certificate for inclusion.

III. Standards for Posting Products

1. Mandatory product attributes: Merchants are required to truthfully fill in the following required attributes when publishing their products in the category of health food: Brand Name, Origin, Ingredients, Shelf Life, Department Name, Usage and Dosage, and Product Specification. Among them, origin, shelf life, usage and dosage, and product specification are open-filled attributes, merchants shall fill in the information based on the product label; regarding the department name, merchants may check single or multiple choices. The filling requirements of the attributes are as follows:

•  ‘Place of origin’ refers to the place where health food is produced or manufactured. This information shall be in consistent with that on the label;
•  ‘Ingredients’ refers to all material components of the product, or at least the main functional ingredients;
•  ‘Shelf life’ refers to, before the product is unsealed, the period during which the quality of the product maintains under the storage conditions as specified on the label;
•  ‘Usage and dosage’ refers to the eating method, the number of times, and dosage per day;
• ‘Product specification’ refers to the product packaging specifications of the smallest package being sold, for example, 100 pieces/bottle.

2. Products with invalid brand information such as "other" or "None" are no longer allowed to be published in the category of health food.

3. Under the health food category, it is not allowed to publish ordinary foods other than health foods, as well as powdered or sliced ​​foods that have only undergone primary processing and unrestricted dose packaging. Common prohibited food products are as follows:

              Ordinary food                   Powdered food with unrestricted dose packaging           Ordinary food                                Sliced food                                                   Sliced ginseng

4. Health food does not allow adding ingredients prohibited in the country of sale. Those ingredients include some prohibited and restricted herbal ingredients or medicinal ingredients (including those approved for use in traditional herbal medicine), such as ephedra and kava, aloe-emodin and its preparation, emodin and its preparation, danthron and its preparation, sibutramine, phenolphthalein, DMAA, DMHA, steroid, dinitrophenol, etc. In addition, the claim of health food shall not contain:

• Information suggesting that the product has features such as preventing, or aiding therapy, or curing human diseases in terms of enhancing sexual functions, treating high blood pressure, improving hearing, and killing bacteria or germs, etc.;
• Information that is false, ambiguous or misleading;
• Information that implies health may be affected if not using the product;
• Information that mentions the speed or specific kilograms in losing weight;
• Information that mentions the advice given by certain doctors or health professionals;
• Information that advise or encourage excessive consumption of a certain type of food;
• Information that implies balanced diet can't provide necessary nutrients;
• Information that makes consumers doubt the safety and/or nutritional adequacy of other foods;
• Information that mentions potential changes to bodily functions, leading to potential customer panic or being used for profits;
• Any other descriptions that violate laws, administrative regulations, or market regulatory requirements.

IV. Requirements for Product Qualifications

Merchants shall upload the following information on the Qualification Information module of the product posting page when publishing products at the health food category:

1. Physical packaging label of the product: Information on the label shall include at least: brand, product name, place of origin, supplement facts, usage and dosage; labels of the health food that is produced in mainland China shall also include information of the health food registration number.

2. For health food produced originally in mainland China, its seller shall also fill in the health food registration number information.

V. Timeline and Penalties for Violations

1. All mandatory attributes of health food have been launched in late April. Starting from May 10, existing products that do not contain required attributes will be removed but can be edited.

2. Starting from May 10, existing products whose brand attributes are "Other" or "None" will be removed but can be edited.

3. Any above mentioned prohibited food products published in the category of health food will be deleted. This will go into effect as of the issue date of this announcement.

4. Any addition of illegally prohibited ingredients to health food products will be deleted and two points will be deducted from the seller's account. This will go into effect as of the issue date of this announcement. Any products that contain above mentioned prohibited claims will be removed (editable for re-uploading) for the first time; and will be deleted for the second violation. This will go into effect as of the issue date of this announcement.

5. The access to fill in health food registration number and to submit product label is expected to be launched in late April. Starting from May 17, existing products that do not contain health food registration number and product label will be removed (editable for re-uploading) for the first time, and will be deleted for the second violation.

6. Penalties for any attempts to evade control by intentionally misplacing category and wrong filling origin will be imposed as follows:

For the first-time violation, the products will be removed with no points deducted, and will be removed from the platform for the second-time violation. For a merchant who evades the controls maliciously more than once, its commodities will be removed from the platform with two points deducted.

7. In the event where the merchant submits false label, or falsely use another merchant's label information or health food registration number, their products will be deleted and 6 points will be deducted from their account once verified.
 

For accounts with severe violations, the platform will impose penalties in accordance with AliExpress Rules on Handling Severe Disruption of Platform Order: 
Serious violation: 12 points/time, freezing the AliExpress account for seven days;
Extremely serious violation: 48 points/time, closing the AliExpress account.

Thank you for your attention and support!

See FAQ about Qualification Submission on AliExpress at: https://sell.aliexpress.com/__pc/LfHYeAD1WC.htm

AliExpress

April 25, 2021