On 24 November 2011, China Light Industry (Wuhan) Design Co., Ltd. (China Design) revealed that the first draft of Design Code for Dairy Product Plant (DCDPP) has been submitted to Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD). If the draft receives official approval, it will be launched soon, and at that time, all the dairy plants should reapply the licenses.
Actually, China Design revealed that the project of DCDPP was approved by MHURD and initiated early in August 2008, and the draft was finished in June 2011. At present, the draft has been submitted to the Central Government, which is in the phase of experts’ evaluation. And the government may issue the draft version to solicit opinions from the public and the industry at first, and then the formal version.
Compared with the original version for dairy product plants, the new version is stricter: China launched its first version of DCDPP early in September 1992, setting detailed requirements for the construction of dairy product plants and even milk collection stations. However, such design code was just an industry standard without compulsory force, and the explosion of the 2008 melamine scandal proved that the original version didn't work very well.
On 26 March 2011, the Chinese government launched National Food Safety Standard of Good Manufacturing Practice for Milk Products and for Powdered Formulae for Infants and Young Children respectively. Though both of the two standards were implemented on 1 December 2010, the requirements in the two standards are rough, and they didn’t help much in practice.
By contrast, the requirements in the new version are detailed, covering the overall layout, air conditioning, drainage system, production environment and dress changing system, etc. For example, the new version sets some requirements for infant formula plant, like workers should wash their hands and change their dresses twice when they go into the workshops, aiming to control the pollutant source more effectively. Besides, the new version requires that all the intersection angles amongst the walls or windows should be round, while the windowsill should be beveled with 45 degree, which is convenient for the wash and disinfection. The new version is as strict as GMP for pharmaceutical companies as reported, and some are even as strict as the standards for bio-pharmaceutical companies.
(GuangzhouChina, November 26, 2011)
Source: CCM International