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China Banned Bovine Colostrum in Infants Foods since 1 September

MOH issued a ban on the use of bovine colostrum and dairy products made of it in infant formula, which will come into effect since 1 September 2012.

On 16 April 2012, the Minister of Health of the People's Republic of China (MOH) issued a ban on the adding of bovine colostrum and dairy products made of it into infant formula in the official response letter about the applicable standards for bovine colostrum products. This ban will be effective since September 1, 2012, but the products produced or imported in accordance with relevant laws and regulations before the deadline can still be sold before the shelf life, which means the infant formula produced after September won’t contain bovine colostrum anymore.

The national ban on adding bovine colostrum into infant formula or importing such infant food is based on two points: Firstly, scientific researches home and abroad about the impact of long-term consumption of bovine colostrum on infant health are less. So there’s a lack of safety data of bovine colostrum as food ingredients in infant formula. Bovine colostrum has complex nutrients, though they enhance the infant’s immune system, a higher proportion of calcium and casein may add burden to infant’s immature gastrointestinal tract and kidney. In addition, the estrogen content in colostrum is higher than ordinary milk, theoretically a long-term consumption adds a risk of abnormal development, but such case has not been found yet. Second, bovine colostrum has not been included in relevant infant formula standards and not allowed to be added into infant formula internationally. As reported, at present China's imported colostrum is mainly from Australia and New Zealand, while the former formulates that dietary supplement products with bovine colostrum shall not be used for 0-4 month-old infants and the latter manages bovine colostrum as supplementary drugs.

Actually not only the relevant standards, but also the definition of bovine colostrum is confusing. In the Response Letter, Bovine colostrum is the milk produced by healthy cows during the first seven days after calving. But for bovine colostrum powder test, Letter specifies that it shall be in accordance with Standards for Bovine Colostrum Power (RHB602-2005), while in which the bovine colostrum is defined as the milk produced within 72 hours from healthy cows normally fed without communicable diseases and mastitis after calving.

Objectively speaking, the nutritional value of bovine colostrum is over exaggerated by some merchants. The view that bovine colostrum is the most close to breast milk is not true and actually it belongs to the physiological abnormalities milk, the physical properties and compositions vary greatly from general milk. Bovine colostrum is not a traditional infant necessity, whether it is suitable to be added into infant food products has been a controversial issue.

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