What qualifications are required for domestic sales of dietary supplements

The core is to straighten out two types of qualifications. One is your main business qualification as a seller, and the other is the compliance filing/registration qualification of the product itself. Without one of them, you can't even open your business normally. If you are randomly inspected by the city supervisor, the goods will be confiscated in the lightest case, and in the worst case, you will be fined several times the value of the goods.

Take my experience of helping a friend open a community nutrition store last year. At the beginning, he only applied for a business license with a "food sales" business scope. When he went to apply for a food business license, he was directly called back by the window. Nowadays, most dietary supplements belong to the categories of health food and special dietary food, and are special foods. The business scope must be clearly marked with the corresponding categories of "health food sales" and "special dietary food sales". These two items must also be simultaneously noted in the business items of the food business license to pass the main test. The same goes for online businesses. Whether it is Tmall, JD.com or Douyin store, these two certificates are required when registering. Without one of them, you cannot open relevant categories. My friend initially wanted to sell vitamin tablets on Douyin live broadcast, but because he did not complete the qualifications, the trailer permission was blocked for almost three weeks.

After you have secured your qualifications, the next most likely pitfall is the compliance issue on the product side. At present, domestically compliant dietary supplements are mainly divided into two categories. The first category is the most familiar health food with the "blue hat" logo, which either holds a health food registration certificate issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision, or is a low-risk product of vitamins and minerals with a health food registration certificate. When you get the goods, be sure to ask the supplier to provide the original copy, and go to the special food information inquiry platform of the State Administration of Market Supervision to check by yourself. Do not take it if the certificate number does not match or the product information does not match. If it is imported general trade goods, you will also need an entry cargo inspection and quarantine certificate and a Chinese label filing certificate. After the goods come back, each bottle must have a compliant Chinese label, otherwise even if it has a blue hat, it will be deemed to be non-compliant. The model of cross-border e-commerce bonded direct shipping is relatively special. Products do not need to apply for domestic blue hats, but they can only be ordered online and shipped directly from bonded warehouses. They cannot send goods to domestic warehouses in advance to sell spot goods, otherwise they will be dealt with in violation of regulations.

Of course, there are different voices in the industry now. Many merchants say that some dietary supplements that mainly supplement dietary fiber and probiotics use ordinary food ingredients and can be sold through ordinary food registration. No blue hat is required. This situation does exist, but the premise is that you cannot claim any health care functions in the whole process, including "enhancing immunity" and "relieving the body." You can’t mention such superficial words as "physical fatigue". Once promoted, even if your product is a qualified ordinary food, it will be investigated and punished as false advertising or counterfeit health food. I used to know a private business merchant who mentioned "assisted lowering blood sugar" when selling inulin that was registered as ordinary food. After being complained, he was fined more than 80,000 yuan, which was not worth the loss.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is similar to opening a milk tea shop. You must have the qualifications to legally open a shop, and the milk and tea you buy must be compliant products with qualified test reports. Both sides must be strict so that there will be no problems. If you are new to the industry and are not sure, go to the municipal supervisory office in your jurisdiction to ask questions in advance. Don’t wait until you have stocked up to discover that you have insufficient qualifications, which will cause great losses.