China has a wide variety of edible vegetable oils, among which soybean oil, peanut oil, and sunflower seed oil are regarded as the most important categories. The current national standards have been in implementation for 15 years. On December 29, 2017, the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration of China approved and released new national standards such as Peanut Oil (GB/T1534-2017), Soybean Oil (GB/T1535-2017), and Sunflower Seed Oil (GB/T10464-2017), which were officially implemented on July 1, 2018. This is another major event in China's vegetable oil quality standardization work following the official implementation of the national standard for Corn Oil (GB/T19111-2017) on May 1, 2018.

What are the main contents of the revisions to these three vegetable oil national standards? What are their highlights? And what benefits do they bring to consumers? To address these questions, reporters recently interviewed Xue Yalin, a researcher at the Academy of State Administration of Grain and the main drafter of the standards.

Prevent excessive processing and retain nutrition

The quality of vegetable oil is a top concern for consumers, and meeting consumer needs is the basic requirement for formulating standards for finished vegetable oil products. Under the framework of the current vegetable oil product standards, there has been a prominent contradiction between vegetable oil products and consumer demands. The above three national standards for vegetable oil products were revised and introduced based on the existing problems in the current vegetable oil market and the aforementioned contradictions.

According to Xue Yalin, there is a widespread phenomenon of excessive processing in the edible vegetable oil industry at present, which has led to the loss of approximately 35%-40% of phytosterols, 70% of tocopherols, and 80% of squalene in the nutritional companions of vegetable oils. In the process of excessive processing, not only are nutritional companions lost, but new pollutants may also be introduced or generated, such as harmful substances like trans fatty acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

It is understood that the revision of the three national standards for vegetable oil products starts from the actual situation of China's oilseeds and oils. It not only considers the actual situation of domestic oilseed production and vegetable oil processing industry levels but also draws on international standards. In particular, it conforms to China's new requirements such as moderate processing, energy conservation and emission reduction, maximizing the retention of nutrients, and reducing the generation of harmful substances during processing. The revised standards are not only advanced and scientific to a certain extent but also highly operable. They are conducive to promoting the development of the domestic vegetable oil industry, improving the nutritional quality of domestic vegetable oil products, enhancing their competitiveness in domestic and international markets, and providing consumers with healthy and nutritious edible vegetable oil products.

Reset grades and adjust smoke points

In terms of aligning with international standards, the characteristic indicators of the current oil product national standards adopt relevant data from the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC for short) and refer to similar oil product standards of other countries, but the technical contents are different.

The new national standards retain the reasonable parts of the original standards and revise the four quality grades in the original standards to three. A common feature of the new national standards is the adjustment of the allowable range of acid value and smoke point. In the quality requirements for finished oils, the grades of finished extracted peanut oil, soybean oil, and sunflower seed oil are adjusted from four grades to three; the grade of pressed sunflower seed oil is adjusted from four grades to two. Modifications are made to quality indicators such as color, transparency, moisture and volatile matter content, acid value, heating test, and smoke point. For example, the smoke point is specified to be greater than or equal to 190°C.

Xue Yalin stated that a smoke point of 190°C for edible vegetable oil can meet the needs of Chinese cooking. The modifications to various indicators such as quality grade, color, and transparency, on the one hand, can guide vegetable oil processing enterprises to carry out moderate processing and provide products with different nutritional components for the market; on the other hand, they allow consumers to consume clearly, guiding the market and consumers to choose edible vegetable oil not only by whether the appearance is clear and transparent or whether the flavor is rich but more importantly by focusing on food safety indicators.

Indicate processing technology and prohibit bulk sales

The new national standards stipulate that in addition to complying with the provisions of GB7718 and GB28050, prepackaged edible vegetable oil in the vegetable oil market shall indicate the product name, processing technology, quality grade, etc., on the packaging label. In international trade, due to the different tariffs on crude vegetable oil and finished vegetable oil, the product name (i.e., classification name, such as crude soybean oil, finished soybean oil) shall be marked on the packaging or accompanying documents in accordance with the terms and definitions. The marking of the "country of origin" of the product refers to the country (or place of origin) where the vegetable oil is produced.

There has long been an endless debate in the market about the pros and cons of pressed oil and extracted oil. In this regard, Xue Yalin said that the provisions of the new national standards are to strengthen the traceability of vegetable oil and meet consumers' right to know. In fact, regardless of whether the vegetable oil is produced by pressing or extraction technology, as long as it meets the requirements of China's food safety standards and quality standards, consumers can eat it with confidence.

"This regulation, first, facilitates national market supervision and management; second, it allows consumers to understand the processing technology and have the right to choose," Xue Yalin said.

In addition, in terms of food safety, especially at the sales terminal, if edible vegetable oil leaves the original packaging, it will make it difficult for consumers to distinguish the quality and safety of edible oil and also bring difficulties to market supervision. To ensure the quality and safety of edible vegetable oil, the new standards require that "prepackaged finished soybean oil/peanut oil/sunflower seed oil shall not be sold in bulk outside the original packaging" to prevent adulteration.

Convert to recommended standards to encourage competition

Reporters learned that the three revised and implemented vegetable oil national standards were announced by the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration of China in 2017, converting from mandatory national standards to recommended national standards. From the date of announcement, the standards are no longer enforced, and the standard code is changed from GB to GB/T, with the standard serial number and year number remaining unchanged.

In fact, with the deepening of China's reform and opening up, the distinction in the nature of standards has gradually aligned with that of developed countries in the world. Initially, standards were divided into mandatory and recommended ones, and later a third type of standard was added—provisionally mandatory standards, that is, a standard contains both mandatory provisions and recommended provisions. With the prosperity of the market economy, the number of such standards has become increasingly large, and it is difficult to determine whether they are fully mandatory or provisionally mandatory without reading the preface.

The formulation of national standards is the key to improving product quality and protecting consumers' interests. Xue Yalin believes that the conversion of some mandatory national standards to recommended ones by the state does not mean lowering product quality. On the contrary, it encourages enterprises to adopt them voluntarily, and through fierce competition, they strive to improve product quality to achieve the goal of a hundred flowers blooming and bringing forth new ideas. This provides conditions for meeting consumers' multi-level and diversified needs and saving limited social resources.

In view of the current situation in recent years where consumers have increasingly high requirements for the nutritional quality of vegetable oil products, while the status of domestic production enterprises varies, Xue Yalin believes that the implementation of the new standards will play a leading role in the development of the industry, promote the alignment of the quality of similar products with international standards and trade exchanges, help regulate the market, and protect the common interests of the country, consumers, and production and operation manufacturers. It will contribute to energy conservation, emission reduction, and full utilization of resources in the industry, improve the overall level of vegetable oil processing technology, provide nutritious and healthy edible oil for the market, make up for the deficiencies of the current standards, and be more conducive to the healthy development and progress of China's vegetable oil industry.

(Source: China Consumer News)