Newly-developed materials for food production must have their risk assessed by qualified institutions before being approved, said China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) Tuesday.

The NHFPC has added the requirement to recent regulations on applications for new foodstuffs, saying that assessment should include composition analysis, hygiene, and virology. It should also include research, usage and sales information from other countries, risk assessment by international organizations and other countries, and safety studies in scientific journals.

The new regulation says novel and new food materials should have the characteristics of raw food materials and conform to nutritional requirements with no health risks.

A panel of NHFPC experts will examine applications.