On 20 October 2016, Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province, China) Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (the “Authority”) destroyed two batches of unqualified food contact articles, including: 548 ceramic cups made in Japan for dangerous levels of heavy metals present in the products; 150 sets of filter elements of storage kettles for defects in product performance and lack of hygiene licenses.

In recent days, the Authority found the measured value of lead migration is 3.0mg/L for some designs of ceramic cups, materially violating the limit of 0.5mg/L set forth in GB12651-2003 Standard Permissible Limits of Lead and Cadmium Release from Ceramic Ware in Contact with Food. The officials immediately judged the cups as non-compliant and sealed the batch of products in separate. The same measure is also employed to a batch of storage kettles imported from South Korea, which were not suitable to be used as drinking equipment as the pH value of water in the kettles proved to exceed the limit specified in relevant Chinese mandatory standard. Meanwhile, defects in product performance and lack of hygiene licenses also contribute to such non-compliance.

Since 2016, the Authority found 58 batches of food contact articles do not comply with the relevant standards, accounting for 61.05% of the total, including five batches which were destroyed due to serious safety hazards. Besides the two batches hereof, the others include mugs from Belgium, plastic spoons from Japan and paper tissue from Italy. The violated items cover excessive levels of hazardous substances, decolouration and non-compliant packaging with relevant standards.

It is common to find that imported food contact materials are failing short of hygiene and safety standards. For your information, imported products can enter the border only when relevant criteria are met. C&K Testing advises companies to send products for testing in strict accordance with rules to avoid economic loss.

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