> Subcommissions Support - China / Northeast Asian

China – North East Asian Subcommission (China-NEAS) November, 2005

This report was presented by Dr. Xiumei Liu.

ICMSF China Sub-Commission has established last October during the 1st ICMSF-CHINA Food Safety Conference in Beijing. The Sub-Commission has seven members.

Dr. Xiumei Liu (Chairperson), Dr. Shuo Wang (secretary-treasurer), Dr. Xueyun Luo (member), Dr. Naihu Ju (member), Mr. Xingan Lu (member), Mrs. Suyun Cheng (member), Dr. Lijun Chen (member).

Dr. Jason Wan from Australia and Dr. Jianghong Meng from US were invited as the honor consultants of China Sub-Commission.

During the past a year, the sub-commission has been very successful and the following tasks have been moved forward:

1. The 1st sub-commission meeting was hold in Fed 21, 2005 in Beijing. 

There were 22 participants, of which five were sub-commission members and the rest participated as consultants. Dr. Xiumei Liu gave a presentation introducing the ICMSF. This was followed by discussions about how to develop ICMSF Sub-commission in China, and the Draft of the Bylaw of China Sub-Commission.

 The missions and functions are:

• Promote ICMSF activities amongst food microbiologists in China.
• Editing and translating ICMSF books, training scientists and consumers for food safety
• Leading and being active for the national standard methods developing and microbial criteria revising

2. The working group of microbial methods and criteria is active. 

The working group of microbial methods and criteria was organized by Dr. Liu, as part of the National Committee of Food Hygiene in China. Three group meetings with the experts from government, university and industry were held in 2005. Development of methods for indicators and foodborne pathogens, and the maximum limits in food commodities, were considered as the priority works. Up to now, six revised microbiological methods were validated and drafted:

• Numeration of Aerobic plate count (GB/T4789.2)
• Detection of coliform bacteria (GB/T4789.3.1)
• Detection of Faecal coliform (GB/T4789.3.2)
• Detection of Escherichia coli (GB/T4789.3.3)
• Examination of Staphylococcus aureus (GB/T4789.10.1
• Numeration of Staphylococcus aureus (GB/T4789.10.2). 

The Microbial criteria of food commodities will be reviewed and revised from Dec 2005 to 2006

3. Codex and relative activity

As a member of Delegation of China, Dr. Liu participated in the 37th CCFH in Argentina in March 2005. She prepared the CRD as China’s governmental comments and joined the Draft Working Group of Enterbacter sakazakii in Powered Infant Formula. Meanwhile, she leads a research team on Enterbacter sakazakii for the national survey in China and collected data, which were published and submitted to FAO/WHO. Those would be much efficient science based for the MC of ES in food.

Coming Events

The 2nd ICMSF China Sub-Commission Meeting will be held in Dec 2005, in Beijing. The translation work for ICMSF BOOK6, 7, 8 and selected position papers will be discussed and scheduled.

The International Hygienic Analysis Technique and Standardization Forum will be held in the Autumn 2006 in China. It is co-organized by the Committee of Hygienic Analysis, Chinese Association of Preventive Medicine, AOAC China Section, the Committee of Microbial Toxin, Chinese Society of Microbiology and ICMSF China Sub-Commission, which is the 2nd ICMSF-China international food safety conference as well. China Sub-Commission has require speakers and financial support from ICMSF