I wrote about the new legislation in the EU affecting imports of products derived from animal sources. It seems according to the UK that the good news is that Chinese Suppliers only need to be registered with CIQ Inspection China. If they issue a certificate conforming to EU format then this is all that is needed. We have just heard that the format required by the EU from CIQ is not a formality and may take a long time for Chinese factories to get one to satisfy the EU.

This means that it could be a risk to ship anything from China that does not comply. This means no Cysteine, no Leucine, no BCAA, no Tyrosine . This can have a big impact on Sports nutrition, Petfoods and Animal Feed. There is a different condition to import for animal use that needs authorisation from those that control agriculture. In the UK it is DEFRA and the imports section APHA that have the overall control over CVED policy.

At this point of writing no importer is able to comply with the new regulations. Chinese Producers and the CIQ will be able to comply but it will take time. The first real alert to importers was in December 2016 giving 3 weeks to be able to comply which is an impossible task. It would have been better to apply the regulations from 2018 which would have been more realistic.

Cysteine and other amino acids from feather have posed little risk over the 30 years I have been dealing in it. So the question must be why was this initiated and what risks were concerns? I can see that they want to bring all animal derived products under the same legislation but they have not assessed the risks properly or understood the time needed to comply. as I said no problems in past 30 years so another year would have been a safe bet is my opinion.

Now I do raise the question why Glycine and Taurine will be subject to this legislation when it is well known these products and made by a totally synthetic process. Why Glutamic Acid the base of Monosodium Glutamate is questioned too when it is well known in the food industry that it is plant derived fermentation that produces Glutamic Acid. It begs the question that the Food Standards Agency has no idea how food ingredients are produced. The thought process being if the name ends in “-ine” then make it subject to vet checks. However this is the agency that did not detect the horse meat scandal believing perhaps if it had four legs and came off a farm you could eat it. Anyone notice if supermarkets selling   Collie-Flour and cheese ?

We hear major producers in China reluctant to export fearing goods to be refused entry to EU Markets. This may create shortages and delays on delivery of many amino acids