Draft Mexican Cheese Conformity Assessment Published for Comment

January 16, 2020

The Mexican government has published the draft cheese conformity assessment procedure related to the new compositional technical regulation issued for cheese last year, NOM-223-SCFI/SAGARPA-2018 (NOM-223) (see earlier Hot Topic). The draft cheese conformity assessment was posted to the CONAMER website on January 13, 2020. The draft will subsequently be published in Mexico's Diario Oficial, at which point the 60-day period for public consultation will commence. An unofficial English translation of the draft conformity assessment procedure for cheese is available here.

USDEC will be developing comments to the draft conformity assessment procedure and welcomes member feedback by February 17. Member feedback may include an estimate of the cost of the current proposal, additional test methods you would like to see approved, and alternative proposals for conformity assessment. Send all comments to Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org and Oscar Ferrara at oferrara@usdec.org.

USDEC will be holding three conference calls with members to address any questions related to the proposal:

  • Friday, January 17, 4:30 pm ET/ 1:30 pm PT
  • Tuesday, January 21, 2:30 pm ET/ 11:30 am PT
  • Thursday, January 23, 11:00 am ET/ 8:00 am PT

Contact Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org to register for any of these calls.

Below is a summary of the draft cheese conformity assessment proposal. The cheese conformity assessment will require manufacturers to prove compliance with two parts of the draft cheese regulation:

Permitted ingredients: Article 5.1.1 of NOM-223 allows up to 2% casein, caseinate, or milk protein concentrate in cheese. Article 4.2.4 of the draft conformity assessment procedure requires companies utilizing any of these three ingredients to complete the declaration in Appendix A and send it through SINEC, a portal of the Ministry of Economy.

Specifications: The draft conformity assessment procedure requires confirmation that the cheese meets the specifications in Table 2 of NOM-223. For imported products, conformity will be assessed through:

  1. Article 4.2.2: A test report for each lot issued by a registered lab (see d below) confirming the specifications:
    1. For products meeting the Codex standard for the applicable variety the test report should indicate the parameters noted in the Codex standard. See Chapter 2 NOM-223 for the list of recognized Codex varietal standards.
    2. For products meeting the Mexican voluntary varietal standard (NMX), the test report should indicate the parameters noted in the NMX standard. See Chapter 2 of NOM-223 for the list of recognized Codex varietal standards.
    3. For products not meeting either the Codex varietal standard or Mexican NMX, the test report must meet the specifications of Table 2 of the NOM (fat, moisture, protein).
    Article 4.2.4: For all cheese, a fatty acid test proving that the fat in the cheese is milkfat is required on each lot.
  2. Article 4.4.1: Approved test methods are those listed in Table 2 of the NOM. For each parameter, the Mexican government has approved only certain ISO and NMX methods. Click here to see USDEC's summary of these methods.
  3. Article 4.2.1: The laboratory performing the test reports must be registered with the Ministry of Economy (instructions forthcoming). The lab must carry one of the following approvals:
    1. Whose results are recognized for obtaining the prior sanitary import permit of import, authorized by the Federal Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks or another authority of the Mexican government, or;
    2. Recognized by foreign competent authorities or entities of accreditation, or;
    3. That comply with the Norm NMX-EC-17025-IMNC-2018 or ISO/IEC 17025:2017 (see normative references 2.3 and 2.4)

As proposed, the current draft conformity assessment procedure treats domestic and imported cheese differently. Domestic manufacturers are only required to provide test reports to the Mexican government two times per year, but imports are required to provide test reports for each lot.

USDEC staff has already started developing comments on this proposal and welcomes feedback from USDEC members as well by February 17. We also encourage you to share your concerns with your importers and customers so that they may also submit comments on this proposal.

USDEC staff will provide more information to members as it becomes available.