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NSF Opens Shanghai Food Safety Testing Lab

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

NSF International, a global not-for-profit public health and product safety organization, opened a lab in Shanghai this week to expand testing and certification services to China--and they could use the help.
The news of the lab broke just as Time picked up a South China Morning Post report that millions of acres of agricultural land and 12 million tons of Chinese grain are contaminated with heavy metal pollution. Just last week, Chinese officials sought to tamp down reports that companies are making faux rice using potatoes and plastic as a means of economic adulteration.   
The new NSF Shanghai Testing Laboratory will provide testing capacity for food equipment, dietary supplements and ingredients, and consumer products and food safety experts will provide on-site assistance.
According to NSF, the new testing lab will work in harmony with NSF Shanghai Co., Ltd., a joint venture NSF International established with the Shanghai Audit Centre of Quality System (SAC) in 2005 and is approved by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA). 
"Manufacturers and suppliers in China require independent system registration and product certification in order to access international markets," the organization said in a statement. "NSF helps companies navigate the global marketplace and bridge Western companies with the Asia market."
Lori Bestervelt, international senior vice president and chief technical officer at NSF,  said the move to Shanghai will provide critical services to Asia's rapidly growing economies. 
"The combination of Asia's growing export market and the need to ensure the safety and quality of raw materials, ingredients, consumer products and food creates a greater demand for third-party testing and certification services from a reputable organization like NSF International," said Bestervelt. "The opening of the NSF Shanghai Testing Laboratory will help companies in Asia ensure the quality of their materials, demonstrate compliance with international public health standards, and conserve resources by eliminating the need to ship product to the U.S. for testing."
NSF will provide food equipment testing, dietary supplement testing, HACCP training, regulatory compliance training and assistance with Good Manufacture Practices (GMP) and Good Labratory Practices (GLP), among other services. 

Full post as published by Food Safety News on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).