NHC Releases Metal Standard (Draft) for Public Comments

On August 31, 2020, National Health Commission of People’s Republic of China (NHC) published the draft of Food Contact Metal Materials and Articles for public comments. The deadline to submit comments is October 20, 2020.

The current national standard for metal materials and articles is GB 4806.9-2016 National Food Safety Standard Food Contact Metal Materials and Articles. The revision of Metal Standard was established in 2017 and officially began in November of the same year.

Compared with GB 4806.9-2016, the main changes in the Metal Standard (draft) are as follows:

• Add requirements for the composition and content of metal materials;
• Reclassify and reset the physicochemical indexes, add the migration limit for alloying element and formulate the method standards for related tests;
• Use artificial tap water or citric acid solution as the food simulant, cancel 4% acetic acid as a food simulant;
• Unify the migration test conditions, select the requirements in Appendix Table A.2 based on the intended use;
• Add the compliance determination requirements of reusable metal products;
• Clarify the marking order of coating materials: when there is more than one metal plating layer, the metal composition of each layer should be marked in the order of “bottom plating layer-the middle plating layer-the surface plating layer (the plating layer on the food contact surface)”, and separated by slashes, such as "plating copper/nickel/chrome";
• Add requirements for metal surface treatment and regulations of the using inks, adhesives and coatings.

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Reference

NHC Issued the Draft on 16 National Food Safety Standards for Public Comments