ISO standards for infant formula ingredients

ISO is developing a series of standards for verifying many of the ingredients in infant formula. Serving a vulnerable population group, infant formulae are highly regulated and manufacturers must demonstrate the product is safe for consumption and that the contents match the nutritional labelling. To this end ISO has just released ISO 21422 | IDF 242 for the determination of chloride content.

ISO, in cooperation with a number of international industry bodies, is developing a series of international standards on validated methods of analysis for infant formula so manufacturers can demonstrate their compliance to Codex Alimentarius standards.

The experts involved in developing the standards include those from industry, regulatory bodies, commercial laboratories and academia, ensuring harmonised standards that can be used to meet labelling regulations all over the world.

Most of ISO’s standards have been adopted by Codex Alimentarius as reference and dispute resolution methods. One such standard is the recently published ISO 21422 | IDF 242, Milk, milk products, infant formula and adult nutritionals – Determination of chloride – Potentiometric titration method, which specifies a method for determining chloride in infant formula, milk and milk products.

Published jointly by ISO and the International Dairy Federation (IDF), ISO 21422 | IDF 242 is the result of close collaboration between ISO, the IDF and the independent standards developing organisation AOAC INTERNATIONAL.

Other standards in the series, currently in development, include:

• ISO 21424 | IDF 243, Milk, milk products, infant formula and adult nutritionals – Determination of minerals and trace elements – Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method; and
• ISO 15151 | IDF 229, Milk, milk products, infant formula and adult nutritionals – Determination of minerals and trace elements – Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method.