The Standardization Administration of China ("SAC") has recently issued 13 national standards for foods and relevant products, including the Beer Standard (Draft for Approval) (the "Draft for Approval") and the General Analytical Methods for Wine and Fruit Wine (Draft for Approval), to seek public comments by November 20, 2018.
The Draft for Approval provides for the beer-related terminology and definitions, product categorization, product requirements, analytical methods, testing rules, and labels, packages, delivery, and storage, and applies to the production, testing and sales of beer. Compared with the former version, the Draft for Approval introduces major technical changes in six aspects. First, definitions of beer, draft beer and other terms are amended, and definitions of some new terms, such as "ale beer" and "lager beer", are added. Second, the classification of products is updated as well. Third, the previous quality grade "Good" is now replaced by the grade "Up-to-Standard". Fourth, indexes and literal descriptions for sensory requirements and physicochemical requirements for beer are revised. Fifth, the "defective" items, under the sub-standard items in the section "testing rules", are removed. And sixth, minor adjustments are made to requirements concerning labels, packages, delivery and storage.