Cut through the noise with this week’s essential regulatory headlines. We’ve distilled the most relevant updates across chemicals, food, and cosmetics so you can focus on action, not searching.

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Recently, the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Promotion Centre formally announced the list of 11 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) consulting service providers. CIRS Group secured one spot due to its accumulated technical expertise and professional capabilities in dual-carbon services. This marks the recognition of CIRS Group LCA consulting capabilities, thus enabling it to continue delivering more compliant and internationally compatible technical support for corporate green transitions.

On Febuary 5, 2026, National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NHC) issued an announcement (No. 1 of 2026) for “Three New Foods” with 22 products approved, including 5 new food raw materials, 11 new food additives, and 6 food-related products.

On February 5, 2026, China’s NHC issued the No.1 Announcement of 2026. 3’-SL was approved as a new food nutrition enhancer, becoming the third officially authorized human milk oligosaccharide (HMOs) following 2’-FL and LNnT.

Based on publicly available information from the Open EFSA and regulations issued by the European Commission, CIRS conducted a statistical analysis of the 2025 EU food additive submissions for corporate reference.

Earlier in September 2025, Shandong Runhan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (“Runhan”) achieved a milestone in its international compliance journey for its core product, GlcNac. With comprehensive professional support from CIRS Group and its U.S. subsidiary, the company’s GlcNac has been concluded by GRAS Panel as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).

Recently, VDK’s synthetically produced β-carotene, manufactured using synthetic biology technology, obtained self-GRAS notification. This milestone signifies the product’s approval as a safe food ingredient for sale and use in the American market, providing crucial support for VDK’s global expansion strategy. This notification was fully supported by CIRS Group.

On January 15, 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), in collaboration with the National Health Commission and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, released the “Catalog of Permitted Health Function Claims for Health Foods: Helps maintain bone and joint health (alleviating Pain or stiffness/reducing cartilage damage)” along with supporting documents. These regulations took effect on January 1, 2026. This marks the first new function added to the health function catalog since the SAMR released the “Implementation Rules for New Functions and Product Technical Evaluation of Health Foods (Trial)” in 2023.

As of December 31, 2025, according to the public information of the EU information retrieval platform Open EFSA, CIRS has conducted statistical analysis on the approval trends of Novel Food (hereinafter referred to as NF) in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2025.