China has published 47 new national food safety standards

The new standards also apply to imported products imported into the country, the portal reports food.chemlinked.com .

Thus, the new standards cover:
— dairy products (GB 19644-2024 “Milk powder and modified milk powder”). The updated standard applies to milk powder and modified milk powder products. It establishes appropriate technical requirements for raw materials, organoleptic properties and physico-chemical parameters of the product, standards for the content of impurities, mycotoxins and microorganisms. In addition, it includes labeling requirements. It comes into force in February 2025;

— materials in contact with food (GB 4806.15-2024 “Adhesives for materials and products in contact with food”). According to the requirements of the standard, additional restrictions are established for raw materials used in adhesives that are in direct contact with food products, including physico-chemical parameters and requirements for their labeling. It comes into force in February 2025;

— methods of testing for the quality and safety of food products. The seven standards include the determination of the relative density of products, the content of arsenic, nickel, chlorpropanol and glycidyl esters, dioxin, lactoferrin in food products, as well as the residual content of the solvent volume in materials and products in contact with food. Entered into force in February 2024;

— microbiological testing of food products. Sixteen standards regulate the specifics of conducting studies for the presence of salmonella, kronobacter, and Escherichia coli toxin. In addition, they establish requirements for sampling vegetable, meat, dairy, egg, fish and bee products, as well as for nutrient media and reagents during microbiological studies. Effective in August 2024;

— food additives (22 standards). The Standard on Food Additives (GB 2760-2024) comes into force in February 2025. The remaining acts regulating their technical requirements and test methods will enter into force in August 2024.

In addition, according to the publication, in February 2024, 6 amendments to the mandatory current standards for the following food additives came into force: sucralose, pullulan, sodium sulfate, calcium ascorbate, disodium edetate, citral.

Standards in China are divided into mandatory and recommendatory and cover various issues such as: contaminants, pesticides, food additives, labeling and packaging, requirements for product types and manufacturing practices. Mandatory standards have the force of law and regulate the protection of human health and food safety. The prefix code of the GB standard indicates the mandatory nature of the act, GB-T or GB/T indicates a recommendation.