On December 25, 2024, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia issued four proposals to develop four technical regulations for food and agricultural products. The details are as follows:

(1) Technical regulations for tomato paste products, the main contents of which include product definition, raw and auxiliary material requirements (addition of seasoning and salt other than tomato flavor is permitted), quality standards (solids content of not less than 50%, etc.), safety and hygienic standards to be implemented in the product, sampling and analytical methods, and so on;

(2) Technical regulations on the residue limits of heavy metals in food, stipulating the maximum residue limits of five heavy metals in food, including lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and tin, and some of the limits are shown in the table below;

(3) Technical regulations on genetically modified foods and feeds, the main contents of which include the scope of application (foods and feeds containing genetically modified ingredients with ingredient content exceeding 1%), definitions and terms, general requirements (imported genetically modified foods shall be accompanied by official certificates proving that they are permitted to be produced and used in the country of origin, they shall comply with the safety and hygiene standards for corresponding foods in Saudi Arabia, and it is prohibited to import genetically modified foods containing genetically modified ingredients of animal origin), packaging, transportation and storage requirements, and so on. ), packaging, transportation and storage requirements, analysis and testing methods;

(4) Technical regulations on unprocessed genetically modified agricultural products, stipulating the scope of application (unprocessed agricultural products containing more than 1% genetically modified ingredients for food and feed), general and special requirements (unprocessed genetically modified agricultural products shall not be mixed with non-genetically modified products for sale, and the outer packaging of the products shall be conspicuously labeled with the word “genetically modified”, etc.), and importation requirements (official licenses shall be applied for on a batch-by-batch basis prior to importation and shall be written off at the time of importation), packaging, transportation and storage requirements, analytical and testing methods, etc.

The feedback period is open until January 23, 2025 for comments on the above draft technical regulations.