Recently, the National Food Safety Standard Review Committee issued21National Food Safety Standard (Draft for Soliciting Opinions), which includes three categories of food products: 'Pasteurized Milk', 'Ultra-high Temperature Sterilized Milk', and 'Sterile Milk'.
Why are these three food standards being revised? What impacts are expected to arise? What are the significant implications? The draft for soliciting comments has removed the restriction on 'beef and mutton' from the product definition. What positive effects does this have on the development of the dairy market? What is the significance of the revised draft for soliciting comments on the national standard for 'Ultra-high Temperature Sterilized Milk'? What are the advantages of dairy products mixed with reconstituted milk compared to pure fresh milk or pure cow's milk? Frost & SullivanFrost & SullivanFrost & Sullivan's consulting advisor in Greater China, Zhu Renjie and Liu Yaoqian, were interviewed by Blue Whale Finance and jointly interpreted Draft for Soliciting Opinions on the Revision of Three National Standards for Dairy Products and Their Implications
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Blue Whale Finance
Q
Recently, the National Food Safety Standard Review Committee issued21The National Food Safety Standard (Draft for Soliciting Opinions) includes three categories of food products: 'Pasteurized Milk', 'Ultra-high Temperature Sterilized Milk', and 'Sterile Milk'. Why are these three food standards being revised? What impacts are expected to arise as a result? What are the significant implications?
The purpose of revising these three food standards is to improve food safety and quality standards, ensuring that consumers obtain safer and higher-quality dairy products. The revised standard content mainly includes clarifying terms and definitions, sensory requirements, physical and chemical indicators, and microbial limits. This will affect production enterprises, who need to adjust their production processes to comply with the new standards.
For consumers, it is expected to bring higher-quality and safer dairy product options, increasing consumer trust in products. For the entire dairy industry, these standard revisions will promote healthy development of the industry, improve product quality and safety levels, and facilitate diversified product development.
Q
The draft for soliciting opinions has removed the 'cattle and sheep' restriction from the product definition. What are the positive impacts on the development of the dairy market?
Pasteurized milk and sterilized milk are defined based on cow and goat milk raw materials and can no longer meet market demand. This revision removes the 'cow and goat' restriction from the product definition and adds physical and chemical indicators as well as microbial limits for special dairy products such as buffalo milk, yak milk, camel milk, horse milk, donkey milk, and other specialty dairy animals. Currently, the market demand for special dairy products is gradually increasing in proportion to the products available. After the indicators are refined, it will be conducive to having clearer standards for special dairy products and will also make production and operation more standardized. This move will have four positive impacts on the development of the dairy market:
· Product innovation and diversity increase: Removing the restriction on 'cattle and sheep' will encourage the use of a variety of milk sources, promote the production of more specialty dairy products, and meet consumers' diverse needs.
· Market competition enhancement: Expanding product range motivates dairy companies to compete, driving improvements in product quality and innovation capabilities.
· Local characteristic development: Supporting special dairy livestock and products may become a local characteristic industry, promoting local economic growth and employment opportunities.
- Increased consumer choice: Consumers now have more options to taste different milk sources, enhancing their satisfaction and loyalty.
Q
What is the significance of adding "reconstituted milk is prohibited in pure milk"? Does it have a significant impact on the current market of pure milk?
The biggest highlight of the revision of the national standard for 'Sterile Milk' is the removal of the use of reconstituted milk as a raw material.,That is, the statement "add or not add reconstituted milk" has been deleted, clarifying that "only raw milk of a single variety" will be used as the raw material. At the same time, the identification regulations regarding reconstituted milk have also been removed. And pasteurized milk has long been2005The 'Notice on Issues Concerning the Labeling of Reconstituted Milk' issued in [year] proposed that no reconstituted milk should be added to pasteurized milk, and the use of raw milk was encouraged.
Reconstituted milk, also known as reduced milk, refers to a liquid made by adding a certain amount of water or milk to dried milk powder. Although there is a certain loss in bioactive substances, it was often used in the past to replace scarce milk sources. However, this situation is now relatively rare.
This revision has not had a significant impact on pure milk on the market, as it is not common to find pure milk products that contain reconstituted milk.
Q
I visited some offline supermarkets and found that there are not many cases of using pure milk made from reconstituted milk. Why is this?
Firstly, in recent years, the prices of domestic raw milk (fresh milk, dairy sources, raw milk powder) have been declining. Large dairy companies do not need to reconstitute milk powder into liquid milk for production, which leads to increased costs. Therefore, there are not many enterprises that use reconstituted milk to produce pure milk.
Secondly, research has confirmed that the higher the degree of thermal damage, the lower the active nutrients in milk. Compared to other types of liquid milk, the bioactive substances such as immunoproteins, active enzymes, and active peptides are relatively severely lost in reconstituted milk.
Q
Currently, is there a situation within the industry where 'super milk' follows its own corporate standards? What are the drawbacks to such practices? What is the significance of the revised draft for soliciting opinions on the national standard for 'high-temperature sterilized milk'?
There are indeed instances in the industry where individual company standards are implemented.
"Ultra-pasteurized milk" is a common industry term, and there are ambiguities regarding which standards it should follow. Due to the lack of a unified standard, "Ultra-pasteurized milk" sold in the same refrigerated area as traditional pasteurized milk actually follows enterprise standards, and the product's outer packaging generally indicates "high-temperature sterilized milk" (based on the State Administration for Market Regulation).2020year2The "Announcement on Revising and Announcing the Classification Catalogue of Food Production Licenses" issued in [month]: "Ultra-high temperature sterilized milk". However, there are no clear limit values for the sterilization intensity and microbial indicators of such products. For example, some dairy companies stipulate in their enterprise standards for "ultra-high temperature sterilized milk" that it needs to be heated to at least100Centigrade Celsius and sterilization should be maintained for a very short time; there is no specified upper limit for sterilization temperature. Some other dairy companies specify that the sterilization temperature for high-temperature sterilized milk is85 - 132℃, maintain1Seconds15Seconds, etc. The enterprise standards implemented are very broad.
The revised draft for soliciting opinions on the national standard for 'High Temperature Sterilized Milk' has clarified the index definitions, equivalent evaluation methods, testing methods, etc., for such products. It provides an important reference and basis for enterprises in the industry to standardize production and fills a gap in domestic standards.
Q
What parts of the draft for soliciting opinions on the new national standard for 'High Temperature Sterilized Milk' do you think need to be revised?
The draft for soliciting opinions on the new national standard for "High Temperature Sterilized Milk" has been3.3The physical and chemical indicators specify cow's milk(3.3.1)and other milks(3.3.2)Physical and chemical indicators for high-temperature sterilization that should be met.
Frost & Sullivan believes that following the deletion of the 'animal' restriction in product definitions from this draft for soliciting opinions, more differentiated and refined indicator standards can be introduced for specialty milks (water buffalo milk, yak milk, camel milk, horse milk, donkey milk) in the future. Considering the different characteristics that dairy products from different protein sources may possess, it is considered necessary to develop more targeted high-temperature sterilized milk indicators (such as pollutant limits, mycotoxin limits, microbial limits, etc.) for each type of dairy product to ensure that the standards are more scientific, reasonable, and practical.
Q
What are the advantages of dairy products mixed with reconstituted milk compared to pure fresh milk or whole milk?
During the period when domestic raw milk prices are high, dairy products mixed with reconstituted milk may offer a more competitive price and be an economical choice.
Reconstituted milk is processed more thoroughly, making it easy to transport and store; whereas pure fresh milk requires cold-chain storage, which has higher transportation costs and process requirements, thus making it the most expensive; room temperature pure milk has lower storage requirements and its price is at a moderate level. In addition, although reconstituted milk does not match the taste and flavor of fresh milk, it can supplement some of the basic nutrients in milk.
* This interview was published in Blue Whale Finance The reporter is Zhang Jinglun, and the original title is: 'Three National Standard Revision for Dairy Products: 'A Mixed Bag' of Specialties Will Be Regulated, and Ultra-Fortified Milk Will Face Its First National Standard ">
