China Releases New Requirements for Metal Containers of Canned Food

Takehome:

• New standard for metal containers of canned food has been released, which includes stricter requirements on the appearance, completeness of inner coating, the performance of sealing gum, etc. of metal containers.

Recently, Standardization Administration of China released “General Technical Standard for Metal Container of Canned Food”, which is open to public consultation until May 30, 2017 (see all China draft regulations for public comments from Chemlinked new column).

This new standard proposes stricter requirements on the safety indexes of mental containers including the requirements on appearance, completeness of inner coating, the performance of sealing gum, etc., which will be in replacement of GB/T 14251-1993 Technical Specifications of Round Tin-plate Container for Canned Foods.

Under the new standard, the products with jumped seam, knocked-down flange, sharp seam and cut-over, etc. will be deemed as unqualified in China. The completeness of coating will be tested by adding 2% sodium sulfate solution into the metal container. The acid resistance, sulfur tolerance and salt resistance will be tested as well to ensure the product safety.

Reference link

Standardization Administration of China