South Korea: Positive List System and Milk Powder Standards Revised

On Nov. 29, 2018, South Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) released notification No.2018-98, announcing amendments to Korea’s Food Code. Major changes include:

Infant foods

1. Add new regulations for infant foods including definitions, GMP, specifications etc. （click here to download the full original text）

2. “Cereal-based infant food” and “other infant food” fall under “infant complementary food”; and revised their definitions, specifications, and test methods.

Food for the elderly

Add definition of “food for the elderly”——food manufactured or produced by making it in more digestible form or using more digestible ingredients in order to let the older take in or digest easily.

Contaminants and forbidden substances in food

1. Set maximum limit for inorganic arsenic in krill oil to replace that for arsenic, and the limit is “＜0.1mg/kg”.

2. Remove criteria of some heavy metal contaminants in these food categories —— capsules, sugar processed products, bean curd or bean jelly, other edible fat and oil products, alcohol.

3. Add two forbidden substances and their test methods —— dithiopropylcarbodenafil and chlorosipentramine.

Pesticide Residue Positive List System (PLS)

Add and revise MRLs of 44 pesticides including iminoctadine, dichlorvos, myclobutanil etc. (click here to download the full original text)

other

1. Add regulations for take-out meal

2. Reorganize food ingredients list according to product name, alias, scientific name, etc.;

3. Revise items of test methods in Food Additive Code.

Read More

• South Korea Dairy Products Regulation

• South Korea Infant Formula Products Regulation