Recently, the National Market Supervision Administration (National Standardization Administration) issued the "Announcement on Approving and Issuing 511 National Standards such as 'Chemical Reagent Perchloric Acid'" (National Standard Announcement 2024 No. 22). Among these, the national standard for "Huajiao pepper", overseen by the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Spices and drafted by Sichuan Jiahe Original Flavor Spice Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Meiliao Meiwei Food Technology Co., Ltd. (Rushi, Meiliao), has been officially approved and will be implemented starting April 1, 2025.
As a revised standard, the "Huajiao pepper" standard provides more detailed and stringent regulations on quality requirements, testing methods, packaging, transportation, and storage compared to the original. In terms of quality, the revised standard has set the limit for foreign matter and mold particles to non-detectable levels and graded huajiao pepper and huajiao pepper powder based on the content of volatile oils. For testing methods, it has introduced the testing method for the closed-eye huajiao pepper content for the first time. The revised standard takes into full consideration the demands of both domestic and international markets as well as consumers' pursuit of food safety and quality, making the standard content more scientific, reasonable, and feasible.
In the revision process, Rushi X Meiliao, based on their long-term monitoring of huajiao pepper quality, provided extensive basic data on volatile oil content, closed-eye huajiao pepper content, among others. Their suggestions, including classifying huajiao pepper into red and green categories and setting respective limits for closed-eye huajiao pepper content, as well as appropriately raising the moisture and total ash content thresholds, were all adopted.
In the future, Rushi X Meiliao, as a professional supplier of selected spices and spice powders in China, will continue to contribute to product quality improvement, promote industry standardization, and lead the comprehensive healthy development of China's seasoning industry!
