China Releases Five Guidelines for Organic Foods Certification Sampling

Compared to the consultation draft released on June 24, 2020, this notice excluded medicinal plants from the sampling target and revised part of the test items and test methods of each guideline. Seven test items that apply to infant formula sampling were changed from mandatory test items into optional ones. They are penicillin antibiotics, cephalosporins, erythromycin, florfenicol, gentamicin, lincomycin and tetracyclines antibiotics.

As revealed by the official notice issued on Dec 15, 2020, China’s Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) released five trial guidelines for the certification sampling of five organic categories. They are vegetables, fruits, teas, dairy products as well as livestock and poultry products. The implementation date will be July 1, 2021.

Fresh milk (sourced from cow, goat and horse)

The test method of penicillin antibiotics was changed from “GB/T 21315-2007 Determination of Penicillins Residues in Foodstuffs of Animal Origin — LC-MS/MS Method” into a more specific one, “GB/T 4789.27 Microbiological Examination of Food Hygiene — Examination of Residue of Antibiotics in Fresh Milk (CL English Version)”.
Aerobic plate count, a mandatory test item in the consultation draft, was changed into the optional test item in this trial guideline.
Test methods for florfenicol and florfenicol amine, gentamicin and tetracycline antibiotics were changed into “SN/T 1865”, “GB/T 4789.27 or GB/T 21329” and “GB/T 22990” respectively.

Infant formula milk powder/Liquid infant formula

Seven test items were changed from mandatory test items into optional ones. They are penicillin antibiotics, cephalosporins, erythromycin, florfenicol, gentamicin, lincomycin and tetracyclines antibiotics.
Test methods of eight items were revised. For example, the test method of gentamicin was changed from the MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) Notice No. 1163 into “GB/T 4789.27 or GB/T 21329 Method for the Determination of Gentamicin Residues in Animal Original Food — Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay”.

Beef, mutton and pork products

Ivermectin was removed from the mandatory test items.
Test methods for olaquindox, moroxydine and chlorpromazine, which apply to the sampling of pork products, were changed into GB/T 20746, SN/T 4253 and GB/T 20763 respectively.

For the English version of aforementioned five guidelines, please email contact@chemlinked.com for translation services.