On August 31, the National Health Commission issued the "Letter from the Secretariat of the National Food Safety Standards Review Committee on Soliciting Opinions on 16 National Food Safety Standards (Draft for Comments) including the limits of contaminants in foods." The deadline for comments on national safety standards is October 20, 2020.

Among them, "National Food Safety Standards, Limits of Contaminants in Foods" (Draft for Comments) was publicly solicited in China from December 31, 2019 to February 28, 2020. A total of 406 comments were received, of which 184 were adopted or partially adopted, 222 comments were not adopted due to insufficient basis for the opinions proposed or not falling into the scope of the revised task. Compared with the previous version of the draft, the main changes in this draft are as follows.

1. Lead limit in food

based on the feedback and relevant data analysis results, the drafting team fully considered the actual production of the industry. Compared with the previous version of the draft, the limit values of lead in potatoes, pickles, preserves, algae and their products, and meat products have all been slightly relaxed.

2. Cadmium limit in food

based on the feedback and relevant data analysis results, the drafting team adjusted the cadmium limit requirements in foods such as morels and other edible fungi, sea crabs and shrimps, anchovy products, and swordfish products.

3. Limit of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in semi-solid condiments

According to feedback, in order to further clarify the implementation of the 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol limit in semi-solid seasonings with acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein, the indicator was revised to: The limit of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in seasonings (except solid seasonings) added with acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein is 0.4 mg/kg. The limit of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in solid seasonings with acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein is still 1.0 mg/kg.

4. Adjustment of the classification of cream and anhydrous cream

based on feedback, the classification of cream and anhydrous cream was adjusted to milk and dairy products, but the benzopyrene limit index remained unchanged.

5. Adjustment of the classification of spice oil

Adjust the spice oil from the condiment category to the vegetable oil category. With the classification adjustment, the lead limit requirement in spice oil will be changed from 1.5mg/kg to 0.08mg/kg; the limit requirement for total arsenic and benzoapyrene increases to 0.1mg/kg and 10 μg/kg respectively.

6. Other modifications

In addition to the above main changes, the drafting team also improved the description of some food category names and the expression of certain footnotes based on feedback, and deleted the edible rice bran annotations after brown rice in Appendix A, and adjusted the level of colored rice in the standard classification.

Foodmate reminds food companies to submit your opinions within the specified time and pay close attention to the development and revision of the standards. At the same time, netizens are also welcomed to participate in technical discussions at the Food Forum. Foodmate will collect their opinions and submit them to National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center.

---

Business Division of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance of Global Foodmate provides food standards & regulations research, labelling compliance consulting/Chinese label design, industry public opinion monitoring and analysis, registration services (of Infant formula, FSMP, Health food, Novel Food Ingredients, Novel Food Additives, New Varieties of Food-Related Products and Overseas manufacturers of imported food) and other comprehensive food safety solutions for domestic and overseas enterprises and institutions in food industry. 

Please feel free to contact us: +86 10 68869850, E-mail: global_info@foodmate.net