In recent years, with the self-discipline development of dairy enterprises, China has become one of the countries with the most complete quality and safety standards and guarantee systems for dairy products in the world. Domestic milk is winning the trust of consumers with its quality, while there is a phenomenon of random addition in imported infant formula. According to customs data, China's total imports of infant formula powder in 2021 dropped by more than 20%.
Sampling inspection: many imported milk powders were found flavoring
Recently, the SAMR issued the Announcement on 13 Batches of Unqualified Food [No. 8 of 2022]. Among them, vanillin was detected in the "ExtraPure infant formula milk powder (0-6 months, Stage 1)", with Ausnutria Dairy (China) Co., Ltd. as the general agent and produced by AUSTRALIAN DAIRY PARK PTY LTD. The Market Supervision Department fined a total of 9.6213 million Yuan. In response, Ausnutria has voluntarily recalled and destroyed related products.
According to the announcements of sampling inspection issued by the market supervision departments in recent years, in Stage 1 milk powder, many well-known milk powder brands have been sampled for the banned substance — vanillin, involving Mead Johnson, Arla, Ausnutria, Abbott and primavita. Most of the milk powder involved is imported.
Vanillin is a commonly used food additive and is widely used in various flavored foods that need to be increased the aroma of milk, especially dairy products, baked foods, beverages and edible oils.
The research shows that vanillin, as a kind of food additive, will not cause harm to human health as long as it is used within the specified scope, but a large amount of vanillin may cause such as dizziness and nausea, and in severe cases may cause liver and kidney damage. According to the National Food Safety Standard Standard for Uses of Food Additives (GB 2760-2014), any food flavoring substances should not be added to the infant and young children formula (0 to 6 months), that is, any food flavoring substance should not be added to Stage 1 infant formula milk powder.
As regards the reasons that vanillin is detected in Stage 1 infant formula, the expert believes that it may be caused by the incomplete clearing of the food production line when the enterprise is switching infants and young children formula of different months; it may also be that traders illegally add such substance in order to pass off high quality products.
The qualified rate of dairy product sampling inspection in China was 99.87% last year
In May of this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Announcement on Food Safety Supervision and Sampling Inspection by the Market Supervision Departments in 2021, which reveals that the qualified rate of dairy product sampling inspection in China was 99.87% in 2021, that of infant and young children formula milk powder was 99.88%, and that of food for special medical purpose was 100%.
From 2019 to 2021, China successively issued the Action Plan for Promotion of Domestic Infant and Young Children Formula Milk Powder and the new national standards, which make clearer and stricter stipulations on raw materials and ingredients, together with the second round of formula registration, improving the inspection system for domestic infant and young children formula milk powder manufacturers. According to data from the customs, China imported a total of 261,700 tons of infant and young children formula milk powder in 2021, a decrease of 21.88% from 2020.
In fact, from the source, the standard test indicators of infant and young children formula milk powder in China are as many as 66 items, which is more than twice the number in other countries and the strictest in the world. The self-test indicators of some leading enterprises in China even exceed 600 items. In the 2021 C-NPS infant and young children milk powder rankings released by ChnBrand, Biostime, Feihe and Ausnutria took 3 out of the top 5 places; in the 12 brands/series above the industry average (25.5), half of them are domestic brands, which are equally recommended as foreign brands.
It is worth mentioning that the notice of the State Administration for Market Regulation on the Action Plan for Improvement of Dairy Product Quality and Safety states that by 2023, the regulation and standard system for dairy product quality and safety supervision will be refined, and the dairy product quality and safety supervision capacity will be greatly improved. The rectification rate of issues found in supervision and inspection will reach 100%, and the qualified rate of dairy product sampling inspection will remain above 99%. The quality and safety management system of dairy product manufacturers will be more complete, and the implementation of HACCP in dairy product manufacturers above designated size will reach 100%. The rate of self-inspection and reporting on the quality management system of infant and young children formula milk powder manufacturers will reach 100%.
In this regard, industry insiders believe that in the future, Chinese dairy product manufacturers will have further increased proportion of self-built and self-controlled milk sources, enhanced research and development capabilities and optimized product structures, which will definitely win consumers' confidence.
Source: YangCheng Evening News
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