Modern Logistics ensures the quality of Chinese Medicinal Materials

At the beginning of the new year in 2015, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Circular on accelerating the Construction of Modern Logistics system of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials, proposing to speed up the construction of modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicinal materials from six aspects. we will strive to initially form a modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine with the integration of harvesting, processing, packaging, warehousing and transportation by 2020.

In addition, on July 30, 2014, the Ministry of Commerce announced the "Storage Management Standard of Chinese Medicinal Materials" and the "Technical Specification of Chinese Medicinal Materials Warehouse" announced by the Ministry of Commerce No. 54 of 2014.

The construction of modern circulation system of traditional Chinese medicine is speeding up.

At present, the total logistics of traditional Chinese medicine in China is about 17 million tons every year. The current situation of traditional Chinese medicine logistics in China lags behind 20 years compared with that of industrial consumer goods and 10 years behind other agricultural products. The core problem is that the quality of traditional Chinese medicine in circulation and logistics can not be guaranteed. "in particular, the backward situation and outstanding problems in the processing, packaging, warehousing and maintenance of traditional Chinese medicine have seriously affected the sustained and healthy development of China's traditional Chinese medicine industry." Zhou Yun, secretary-general of the traditional Chinese Medicine Market Professional Committee of the China traditional Chinese Medicine Association, told reporters.

The Ministry of Commerce, as the department in charge of the circulation of traditional Chinese medicine, believes that with the economic and social development of our country, the contradiction that the logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine does not adapt to the development of traditional Chinese medicine and the expansion of the health needs of the people has become more and more prominent. the main manifestations are as follows: the processing and packaging of Chinese medicinal materials, the scattered backwardness of storage facilities, the lack of modern maintenance technology, and the low level of intensification, standardization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine logistics. The service function is not perfect, which brings some hidden trouble to the quality and safety of traditional Chinese medicine. Promoting the construction of modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine is of great significance to improve the organizational and modern level of the circulation of traditional Chinese medicine, to enhance the ability of the circulation of traditional Chinese medicine to ensure the quality and safety of traditional Chinese medicine, and to promote the sustained and healthy development of the cause of traditional Chinese medicine.

For this reason, the Ministry of Commerce proposed in the Circular on accelerating the Construction of Modern Logistics system of traditional Chinese Medicine that by 2020, a modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine with the integration of harvesting, processing, packaging, warehousing and transportation will be initially formed. basically meet the logistics needs of the professional market of traditional Chinese medicine and e-commerce transactions, and basically meet the requirements of the development of traditional Chinese medicine and the growing health needs of the people. The specific objectives are: the basic establishment of the standard system of the logistics of Chinese medicinal materials; the basic establishment of the logistics infrastructure and circulation network with the main production and marketing areas of Chinese medicinal materials as the circulation node; the centralized warehousing of bulk Chinese medicinal materials and expensive, fine and poisonous Chinese medicinal materials; the widespread application of logistics information management technology and new maintenance technology of Chinese medicinal materials; the circulation traceability system plays a role in an all-round way; and the comprehensive strength of large and medium-sized Chinese medicinal materials logistics enterprises is significantly enhanced.

At the same time, six main tasks and four safeguard measures are put forward. The six tasks are: to build a processing base of traditional Chinese medicine industry; to standardize the packaging of traditional Chinese medicine; to build a centralized warehousing and distribution network; to popularize and apply modern logistics management and technology; to improve the supporting logistics service functions of the professional market of traditional Chinese medicine; to strengthen and expand the warehousing and logistics enterprises of traditional Chinese medicine. The four safeguard measures are: strengthen planning guidance and policy support, and strive to provide land, capital and financing support in the construction of intensive producing area processing base and socialized storage base of traditional Chinese medicine; to form a standard system covering the whole process of logistics of traditional Chinese medicine as soon as possible; to carry out the storage quality certification system of traditional Chinese medicine to ensure that enterprises engaged in public storage services of traditional Chinese medicine have corresponding storage conditions. Give full play to the positive role of relevant trade associations in the formulation, publicity and implementation of Chinese medicine standards, personnel training, professional consultation, etc.

The establishment of warehousing and logistics standards for traditional Chinese medicine is in full swing.

In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce has done a lot of work to promote the construction of modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine, mainly in the following three aspects: first, to win the support of the Ministry of Finance and use central financial funds to promote the construction of traceability system of traditional Chinese medicine circulation. The second is to entrust the China warehousing Association and the China traditional Chinese Medicine Association to organize relevant units to carry out the subject of "Research on the Construction of Modern Logistics system of traditional Chinese Medicine". Third, according to the research results of the subject, issued the "guiding opinions on accelerating the Construction of Modern Logistics system of traditional Chinese Medicine", made arrangements and requirements for related work, and started the construction of logistics standard system of traditional Chinese medicine, and put forward the "51st" standardization system of traditional Chinese medicine logistics. It includes "Logistics quality Management Standard of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials", "Technical Standard of Chinese Medicinal material Warehouse", "Technical Standard of Storage Management of traditional Chinese Medicinal material", "Technical Standard of modified atmosphere maintenance of traditional Chinese Medicinal material", "Technical Standard of processing of traditional Chinese Medicinal material producing area" and "Technical Standard of Packaging of traditional Chinese Medicinal material".

At present, the two standards of "Technical Specification for traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials Warehouse" and "Standards for Storage Management of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials" have been formally promulgated and will be formally implemented in March 2015. "Technical Specification for atmosphere Control of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials" was approved by experts on November 24, 2014 and submitted to the Ministry of Commerce for approval and release. The two industry standards of "Logistics quality Management Standard of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials", "Technical Specification for processing of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials in producing areas" and "Technical Specification for Packaging of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials" are applying for the standard plan in 2015.

Guan Feng, secretary general of the China warehousing Association, said that there are three focus problems in traditional Chinese medicine logistics: first, the degree of intensification and scale is very low, second, facilities and technology are very backward, and third, there is a lack of unified standards and overall supervision. The purpose of formulating relevant standards is to solve the problem of "small, scattered and poor" storage of traditional Chinese medicine, and to guide the storage of traditional Chinese medicine to the direction of "scale, intensification and specialization".

The two industry standards of "Technical Standard of traditional Chinese Medicine Warehouse" and "Storage Management Standard of traditional Chinese Medicine" are organized and declared by China traditional Chinese Medicine Association and China warehousing Association, and included in the circulation industry standard plan of the Ministry of Commerce in 2013. Zhou said that the "511" standard system for traditional Chinese medicine put forward by us is a complete system. Standardized warehouses are the basis and basis for providing standardized warehousing management and standardized maintenance, and are follow-up facilities for standardized production area processing and packaging. Standardized warehouses are conditions for the implementation of other standards. Standardized production area processing provides a guarantee for standardized maintenance, and it is also a prerequisite for standardized packaging and standardized warehousing management; standardized packaging is the carrier of circulation traceability of Chinese medicinal materials and a necessary condition for standardized warehousing management of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. In short, standardization is the means to realize the construction of modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicinal materials and the top priority of the development of the industry.

Interpretation of two Standards for Storage and Construction of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials

Which key points should be paid close attention to in the two industry standards of "Technical Standard of traditional Chinese Medicine Warehouse" and "Storage Management Standard of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials"? Relevant experts from the China traditional Chinese Medicine Association and the China warehousing Association have interpreted this.

Experts pointed out that with regard to the scope of application of the standard, the applicable objects of the standard are traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, traditional Chinese medicine preparation enterprises and logistics enterprises engaged in the warehousing and operation of traditional Chinese medicine. Whether the two standards are applicable to the broad masses of pharmaceutical farmers, professional cooperatives and self-employed households is not clearly defined in the standards. this reflects a basic guide of the standard drafting group, the standard examination and approval committee and the national competent department: advocating the enterprise construction and management of traditional Chinese medicine warehouses.

Experts believe that only by being enterprised, market-oriented, and socialized, can we ensure the "scale, intensification, and specialization" of warehouse construction, and fundamentally change the current situation of poor storage of traditional Chinese medicine. Of course, the standard does not apply to "farmers and self-employed households", and we do not object to farmers and self-employed households building large-scale warehouses according to this standard. We only advocate "farmers and self-employed households" to build "large-scale, intensive and specialized" warehouses in the form of registered enterprises and manage them with enterprise behavior.

The industry standard of "Technical Specification for traditional Chinese Medicine Warehouse" includes the definition of 7 terms and the requirements of planning and construction of traditional Chinese medicine warehouse. The basic requirements of seven aspects, including how to select the location of the warehouse, how to select the professional type of the warehouse according to the characteristics of the region and traditional Chinese medicine, how to select the building type of the warehouse according to the characteristics of the logistics of traditional Chinese medicine, and stipulate the minimum size of the warehouse of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. and the basic requirements of other warehouse facilities.

Experts pointed out that the professional type warehouse of traditional Chinese medicine was put forward for the first time by this standard, and the temperature and humidity range of three professional types of warehouse was defined from the point of view of the storage demand of traditional Chinese medicine, and its parameters were based on the Pharmacopoeia of the people's Republic of China. And the actual situation learned from Chinese medicine warehousing enterprises in different regions during the study of the subject of modern logistics system construction of traditional Chinese medicine, and will be fully discussed by experts to form a unified conclusion.

With regard to the basic principles of warehouse planning and construction, there are mainly three aspects to consider: first, the national layout, according to the overall planning of the construction of the logistics system of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, and following the principle of centralized warehousing in producing areas and auxiliary storage in the market; second, the scale of the warehouse should be determined according to the warehousing needs of local planting and trading of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, combined with the actual situation of the existing standard warehouses. Third, the specific location of the warehouse, it is necessary to consider convenient transportation, rational planning and centralized construction.

The standard puts forward the applicable areas of the professional types of traditional Chinese medicine warehouse and the types of medicinal materials suitable for storage. The northeastern, northern, northwestern and central regions are suitable for the construction of room temperature storage, shade storage in the Yangtze River basin and low temperature storage in the southeast coastal areas; normal temperature storage is suitable for storing medicinal materials that are not suitable for moth eating, mildew and oil flooding; cool storage is suitable for storing Chinese herbal medicines that are easy to volatilize, sublimate and oily, and low temperature storage is suitable for storing expensive and fine (rare) medicinal materials, animals and seeds.

The standard also puts forward the building types and applicable conditions of traditional Chinese medicine warehouse, which is mainly based on the basic laws and different needs of traditional Chinese medicine logistics according to the situation of investigation and research. not only ensure the safety of traditional Chinese medicine storage (storage time, convenient use of atmosphere maintenance), but also consider the input and output of the warehouse, but also consider the logistics operation efficiency, synthesize these factors to put forward the applicable object. For example, the cottage warehouse is suitable for storing traditional Chinese medicine with single variety, small batch and short storage time; the building warehouse is suitable for storing traditional Chinese medicine with large variety, large batch and long storage time; and three-dimensional storehouse, it is suitable for storing traditional Chinese medicine with standard packaging, many varieties, small batches and quick entry and exit. The warehouse of traditional Chinese medicine shall mainly push the building warehouse.

The industry standard of warehousing Management of traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials includes the definition of 5 terms and 6 basic requirements of warehousing management of traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

"controlled atmosphere Storage and maintenance" is an important term of the standard, and it is also an advanced method for the maintenance of traditional Chinese medicine recommended by the standard.

The standard puts forward six basic requirements for the warehousing management of Chinese medicinal materials, of which the second is that the warehousing management of traditional Chinese medicinal materials should have the service functions of acceptance, management, maintenance, delivery and delivery of traditional Chinese medicinal materials; third, the warehousing management of traditional Chinese medicinal materials should use the warehousing management system (WMS) to manage the whole process of the warehousing of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Article 4 the warehousing management of Chinese medicinal materials shall be equipped with trained and qualified professional and technical personnel engaged in the warehousing management of Chinese medicinal materials; article 5. The warehousing management of Chinese medicinal materials shall, for the purpose of ensuring the quality of Chinese medicinal materials, establish a warehousing quality management system and improve the warehousing operation process and operation standards. These four items refer to the requirements put forward by modern logistics for the warehousing of traditional Chinese medicine. And the first, according to the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, select normal temperature storage, cool storage, low-temperature storage respectively. Chinese medicinal materials shall not be stored in the open air; article 6, Chinese medicinal materials shall not be fumigated with aluminum phosphide or abused sulfur fumigation during storage, and maintenance methods such as controlled atmosphere storage shall be adopted for Chinese medicinal materials stored for more than 30 days. These two articles are based on the basic characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine.

Why "do not use aluminum phosphide fumigation"? Experts say, on the one hand, it is because in 2011, five ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the General Administration of quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, issued notice No. 1586 banning the use of highly toxic agents of aluminum phosphide; on the other hand, it is harmful to operators in the use of aluminum phosphide, fire, corrosion of equipment (copper and copper alloys are particularly serious), and environmental pollution.

Why "do not abuse sulfur fumigation"? In view of the fact that in 2011, the State Food and Drug Administration and the China Pharmacopoeia Commission issued a notice stipulating that the sulfur content of 11 medicinal materials, such as Chinese yam, Achyranthes bidentata, Gastrodia elata, Atractylodes macrocephala and Codonopsis pilosula, is less than 400PPM, and that other Chinese medicinal materials with sulfur content less than 150 PPM; are not allowed to be used for sulfur processing and whitening in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, so the standard does not restrict the use of sulfur fumigation, but sulfur dioxide residues need to comply with national regulations. "do not abuse sulfur fumigation" means that sulfur shall not be used for processing whitening medicinal materials.

Why choose the "30th" time node? Because the physiological period from egg to larva to adult is about 36 days, if Chinese medicinal materials are stored for more than 30 days without scientific and effective maintenance, insect pests may occur, which will not only affect the quality of medicinal materials, but also damage the economic benefits of enterprises.

Experts said that the current production of traditional Chinese medicine in China has a strict GMP and quality traceability system, but as the source of traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese herbal slices can not be traced back, and its quality has become a major problem and hidden danger of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, the construction of modern logistics system of traditional Chinese medicine will become an important part of further tracing back to the source of traditional Chinese medicine.