On the afternoon of April 11, the "Good manufacture practice for Plant Extract" (GEP) group evaluation meeting held by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Pharmaceutical and Health Products was held in Beijing. The meeting invited industry experts from the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Institute of Standardization, the Institute of Medicinal Plants of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking University, Hunan Agricultural University, the United States Pharmacopeia and Shanghai Hebon Certification Co., Ltd. and other units and representatives of the upstream and downstream of the plant extract industry chain, a total of more than 20 people attended the meeting.
Wang Maochun, Vice President of the Medical Insurance Chamber of Commerce, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. He stressed that as the world's largest production and supply exporter of raw materials for health products, China shoulders a major responsibility for the quality control of plant extracts. He mentioned that strengthening industry self-discipline through the formulation and implementation of standards is the key to leading the healthy and orderly development of the plant extract industry. The GEP standard of the demonstration is integrated with the internationally recognized cGMP standard and the concept of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical control Point), which aims to strictly check the quality control of the key links of the production process. In the future, the Chamber of Commerce will also cooperate with third-party institutions to carry out certification work, in order to create brand labels for Chinese plant extracts, and contribute to the sustainable and healthy development of the industry. 
The meeting also invited to the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration of special food safety supervision and management Department Inspector Zhang Jinjing and Director Wan Chao to guidance. Director Zhang Jinjing pointed out in his speech that the adoption of standards and other technical norms to restrict the whole process of production of plant extract enterprises is conducive to the implementation of the main responsibility of enterprises and guide the sound development of the industry.
On behalf of the standard drafting working group, Dr. Wu Qi from the China Institute of Standardization introduced in detail the background of the development of the GEP standard and the main content modules of the standard. She mentioned that the group standard was co-led by the China Institute of Standardization and the China Medical Insurance Chamber of Commerce, and invited leading enterprises in the field of plant extracts and downstream health food enterprises to participate in the development of the standard to ensure broad representation and applicability. GEP group standard is suitable for the production of plant extracts used as Cosmetic Raw Material, Food Additives, general food, Nutritional Supplements, Male Health and Herbal Extract, around the production site, facilities and equipment, organization and personnel, production process and product quality and other five core parts. During the meeting, experts and business representatives had a warm and in-depth discussion on this standard, and put forward valuable suggestions for revision and adjustment. After full discussion and exchange, the GEP group bid will be further improved and modified after the meeting. The Medical Insurance Chamber of Commerce plans to further expand the scope of the "2024 China Health Product Raw Materials Conference and International Procurement Information Exchange Meeting" held in Xi 'an on April 24-26 to solicit opinions and suggestions from enterprises, in order to make this standard more close to the actual industry, more guiding and operable.
The successful holding of the demonstration meeting not only laid a solid foundation for the formulation and improvement of the group standard of "Good Production Practices for plant extracts", but also injected new vitality into the healthy development of China's plant extracts industry. It is believed that with the joint efforts of all parties, China's plant extract industry will usher in a better future.
May 06, 2024
