Food Safety Standards News

At Thanksgiving I like to do a post on food safety, and the biggest food safety news this month are the eight new ISO testing standards for infant formula and adult nutritionals.  Concern about the safety of infant formulas (and the similar products for the elderly) has been in the news the last several years.  Now ISO, in conjunction with IDF (the International Dairy Federation) and AOAC International’s SPIFAN project (Stakeholder Panel on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals), has released the first of what should be an extensive group of standards to promote quality in these products.

Here’s the list of the new eight standards:

ISO 16958, Milk, milk products, infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of fatty acids composition — Capillary gas chromatographic method

ISO 20633, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of vitamin E and vitamin A by normal phase high performance liquid chromatography

ISO 20634, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of vitamin B12 by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)

ISO 20637, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of myo-inositol by liquid chromatography and pulsed amperometry

ISO 20638, Infant formula — Determination of nucleotides by liquid chromatography

ISO 20639, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of pantothenic acid by ultra high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry method (UHPLC-MS/MS)

ISO 20647, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of total iodine — Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

ISO 20648, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of chromium, selenium and molybdenum — Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

As you can see, each of these standards provides you with the test requirements for a specific nutrient (the ISO 20648 is for what’s termed ultra-trace minerals).

Why should you use these new food safety standards?  First, manufacturers of infant formula and official control laboratories can use them to check compliance with regulations.  Secondly, they are going to be proposed  for inclusion in the Codex Alimentarius as so-called Type II methods (i.e. reference methods).  This will enable them to be used for dispute resolution internationally.

What do these test methods verify?  These ISO standards will be used to confirm that infant formulas and adult nutritionals are providing the adequate nutrition necessary for their user populations.  In other words, they’ll be used to prove that these products deliver on their promise of nutritional validity.

How can you get your copies of these and other food standards?  Use the Document Center Inc. webstore at www.document-center.com to purchase your ISO standards.  As an authorized distributor, Document Center not only provides standards from around the world but also gives you the tools to find them.  For example, for documents like the one’s reviewed here there’s a Document Center List of Standards on General Methods Of Tests And Analysis For Food Products.  Other food standards can be found by using the links on our Document Center List of Standards on Food Technology.

If you have questions or want additional information on Document Center’s services and products, please contact our staff.  They can be reached by phone (650-591-7600) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’ve been selling standards since 1982, so make us your Standards Experts!

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Claudia Bach

Claudia Bach is the President of Document Center Inc. and a world-wide recognized expert on Standards and Standards Distribution. You can connect with her on Google+

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