Beware of "pesticide residues" in plant extracts exported to the United States

According to statistics on the official website of FDA, in August this year, six batches of plant extracts exported from China to the United States were refused entry because of "containing an insecticide" and "containing an unsafe pesticide" However, no similar notification was found for such products in 2012 The main products include rhodiola extract, bilberry extract, ginkgo extract, etc Plant extract is a kind of product formed by using modern extraction and separation technology to extract and concentrate one or more components from plant raw materials (fruits, dual-purpose plants, Chinese herbal medicine, etc.) without changing their effective components According to the different components of extracted plants, glycosides, acids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, terpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc are formed It is widely used not only as the main raw material of the pharmaceutical industry, but also for ordinary food, health products, dietary supplements, cosmetics, food additives (pigments, sweeteners, etc.), flavors and fragrances In developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, South Korea and Europe, health care products with plant extracts as raw materials are favored by consumers, and the market demand is increasing year by year In recent two years, the export volume of Chinese extracts to the United States has been growing Since this year, the FDA of the United States has paid more attention to plant extracts, and the requirements for agricultural residue limits have been increasing Due to the wide range of sources of raw materials for plant extraction, at present, FDA's judgment on the quality of plant extraction and pesticide residues is mainly based on the following standards: first, all extracts listed in USP-NF are judged according to usp36-nf31 Second, for other extracts not listed in the Pharmacopoeia, the agricultural residues were detected and determined according to nf28 (nf28 is equivalent to usp36, slightly loose than the limit index of usp36) Based on the consideration of technical barriers to trade, the United States has been increasing the detection weight of agricultural residue limit The detection limit of some pesticides is generally below 0.01ppm Extracts from some wild plants and raw materials of Chinese herbal medicines in China may be detected as trace residues and refused entry This year, some large domestic companies exported products with large volume, so they were returned by the FDA of the United States The United States is an important export market for plant extracts in Ningbo In order to prevent related enterprises from being notified by the United States again, the inspection and quarantine department reminds export enterprises to be careful to prevent pesticide and pesticide residues of products exported to the United States: first, to ensure the purchase of plant raw materials and Chinese herbal medicines, and for the raw materials planted, it is necessary to investigate the drug use situation or relevant records of the growers The second is to check the acceptance of raw materials When the raw materials enter the factory, the enterprise should strengthen the self inspection of sampling, send representative sampling to the professional organization to check the pesticide, pesticide residue and other items, and at the same time, make the batch acceptance and verification records of raw materials to ensure that the quality of plant extract products can be traced back Third, we should do a good job in the factory inspection of products and strengthen the inspection of finished products, especially for products with high effective components of extracts Due to the large extraction concentration range, solvent residues and pesticide residues are more likely to exceed the standard We must increase the inspection and control efforts to avoid unnecessary return loss.