Imported food packaging, labels, ingredients, names, additives, standards Daquan

[China Packaging Network News] When people buy packaged foods, they will see a variety of words or graphics printed on the outer packaging. However, how many people really care about these contents, how many people know the definition of food labels? Definition of food labels In China's GB 7718-2011, it is stipulated that food labels refer to all descriptions such as text, graphics, and symbols on food packaging. It can be seen that the food label is not just a label attached to/printed on the packaging, but all the graphics and text on the packaging.

At the same time, when it comes to packaging, it will inevitably lead to advertisements. Many companies print various kinds of publicity on the packaging of their products, such as high-quality, top-quality, natural, sales first, organic, rich, and even national products. The well-known trademarks in China were marked up, and these contents were almost completely rejected after the implementation of the new advertising law, and the declaration of functions and the efficacy of medical treatment containing health care were even less likely to occur. China still has such a clear requirement for local food labels. What concerns do you have about labeling for increasingly hot imported foods? Can some imported foods be free of Chinese labels?

Imported food labels

Basic requirements to follow

In China, all imported foods must be accompanied by relevant Chinese food labels. The content to be included in the label of imported food varies from product to product, but its basic content includes the name of the food, the country of origin, and the list of ingredients. For example, when setting food names, companies will think of names that are more elegant, highlight product features, and allow consumers to remember or are interested, but it should be noted that the real name of the product name and the product must be consistent, otherwise Will violate the relevant standards of GB 7718-2011, and such issues often appear in imported food;

The country of origin of the imported food will generally not be a problem, but the country of origin must have the full name. Do not use abbreviations. For example, Indonesia should not write Indonesia;

The ingredient list is also a very important part of the imported food label, and it is very easy to make mistakes. It needs special attention.

Different imported products will also have targeted individual standards, and individual standards will also specify many special requirements. For example, a tea beverage may require a tea polyphenol content of 300 mg/kg; products containing aloe vera must be labeled as products. Aloe vera products should not be used by pregnant women and children; the milk protein content must not be less than 1%; natural mineral water Fluoride content greater than 1% must be labeled with fluorine; products that add hydrogenated vegetable oil must be labeled with trans-fatty acids; cakes must be marked with processing methods—hot processing, cold processing, and so on. The contents specified in the individual standards are not reflected in GB 7718 or general standards, so after studying these standards, the detailed standards should be studied according to the characteristics of the products.

Undoubtedly, food labeling needs to be legible and legible, and imported foods are not as good as they are. However, in practice, individual situations will still arise. If some packages are small, the label printing content cannot be clearly seen, and the minimum font labeling requirements cannot be achieved at the same time. This will result in re-posting and rectification. For imported food labels, the minimum font size must meet the standard height requirements, and there should be no false publicity, exaggeration, or confusion.

The Chinese and foreign languages ​​on the imported product packaging must correspond to each other—usually the content of the mandatory label, and the font size is related to the packaging. When the maximum surface area of ​​the packaging is ≥35cm2, the font height of the mandatory label shall not be less than 1.8mm.

When the package maximum surface area < 10cm2 only need to indicate the name, net content, dealer name, address, contact information and so on.

At the same time, Chinese fonts that have a correspondence relationship must not be smaller than foreign fonts, with the exception of registered trademarks. Because the products produced in foreign countries do not require their marked contents to fully comply with the requirements of China, the corresponding Chinese trademarks, importers, manufacturers' names, addresses, web addresses, etc. of imported foods do not need to correspond.

Imported Food Labels - Parts That Need Attention

name:

The primary role of the food name is to reflect the true nature of the food, so the name must match with the ingredients, and the name should use the name that appears in the standard. If the name that is not used in the standard or the name that is not familiar to everyone may involve the new name, the product category needs to be marked. The product category can be searched and classified from the attached pages of GB 2760 or GB 14880. Among them, the use of additives can be found in the classification of GB 2760. Therefore, the type of labeling products should be classified with a more standard classification or a classification with a larger standard.

For the product name, it needs to pay attention to the issue of taste. Many importers like to highlight the taste in the label, such as apple drinks and apple-flavored beverages, and the difference between them will cause great problems. The product name is Apple Beverage. There must be apples in the product, but there is no such requirement for apple flavor. It may only add a small amount of fruit juice or only fruit flavor, but it also meets the standard of fruity drinks, so the imported food is In the process of the product name, it is necessary to prevent the product name and the product attribute from being different.

Ingredients table:

The ingredient list is the most important part of all food labels, and it is also the most prone to errors in imported foods.

"Ingredients" or "list of ingredients"; "raw materials" or "raw materials and excipients" This is a guideline that is clearly defined in the standard.

The order of the ingredients needs to be arranged from large to small, and less than 2% of the ingredients can be arranged out of order. In fact, many ingredients of foreign foods have not been developed. In principle, importing companies are required to negotiate and communicate with them to determine the content of ingredients, issue corresponding statement of circumstances, and then give labels. For example, imported beverage products contain a lot of water, but they are not reflected in the ingredient list. This requires the manufacturer to provide a rough match and assist with other situations to help complete the label.

Another commonly encountered problem is compounding - foreign agents or preparations. It does not have a prescriptive guide in front of it. Then there may be doubts about the deployment of compounding in the labeling process. This is similar to the real attributes of food names. . The compound guide words must be directed at the name, whether they can be directly used, and whether they use matching names.

Many companies fill out the ingredient list based on their feelings. This is a wrong view, and it is not possible to find written ingredients on the Internet. As we all know, the Inspection and Quarantine Bureau is an official organization. They adhere to official announcements, texts, standards, etc., and they will be checked according to standards during the labeling process. Therefore, it is best to find official references when writing ingredient names, such as announcements, the Ministry of Agriculture, Light industry standards, industry standards, national food safety standards, and the Health and Family Planning Commission announcements, etc., write ingredients based on this name. Although there are provisions for labeling that are easily volatile during processing, they are still controversial in the actual process and need to be treated differently. In addition, "food essence", "edible flavor", "food flavor and fragrance", etc. also need attention, different people understand different, need to prescribe the right medicine.

When people talk about ingredients, they often think that although many ingredients have labels, they can still not be imported because they will involve issues in the national epidemic areas. China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine will periodically publish the contents of countries that are affected by the disease, such as foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu, as well as products that have conflicting standards and try to avoid importation. The ingredients or ingredients that are particularly emphasized in imported products need to be marked with the content (some standard requirements are marked), and the content marked according to the new advertising law must be true, especially for beverage products, if the content of juice juice needs to be >10%; Writing honey, aloe vera, etc. also needs to be marked.

Many foreign additive products use the E code, but not all E codes are targeted in China and need to be checked and reused by import companies. And additives need to pay special attention to the writing format. It must be correct. China's GB 2760 standard has been updated. It is necessary to pay attention to whether the previously commonly used additives are available in the existing regulations and need to pay attention to the updating of standards at any time. If new foods are used in imported products, they need to pay attention to the precautions for using the product, such as daily usage and inappropriate population.

Specifications, net content:

It shall be marked in accordance with the standard format in Appendix C of GB 7718. The unit shall be marked correctly, and the solid/liquid units shall be different. The solid state shall be g, kg, ≥1000mL, 1000g shall be marked as 1L, 1kg, and the font case shall conform to the requirements of Table 3 of GB 7718. The standard size of the font size Wen Ning can be neither big nor small, and the net content and the product name must be on the same display surface. The solid-liquid mixed product needs to be marked with the content of the drained substance/solids, and the solid-liquid mixture based on the solid should be marked with this content. If the company's multiple standards are not marked wrongly.

Country of origin, manufacturer and distributor information:

Before August 2014, if the manufacturer is marked, it needs to mark the address, contact information, etc. Since the standard regulations are not very clear, many products are ordered to be rectified but there is no way to start. Therefore, they must be marked according to the most stringent standards. The standard is explained by the Health and Welfare Commission. The inspection and quarantine bureau is responsible for the implementation. Therefore, if the company has a very important and important issue, it can consult the Health and Development Commission.

Production date, shelf life, storage conditions:

The date of the large package product can be marked in the form of “see some part of the package”, and the small package can generally be written as the package.

There are many formats for date labels, and there are specific and explicit statements in GB 7718.

At present, many product dates that often appear are not in the order of the year, month, and day. Such products should indicate the order of dates.

The distributors, importers, and agents of imported foods can be marked arbitrarily, but all contact methods need to be marked. They can be marked with telephone, fax, email, and contact address on the right, but the address is not a contact method nor a substitute for contact information.

The dealer's name should be marked directly, without modifiers, such as Chinese distributors, general distributors, etc., and can be added only if there is a definite authorization.

No need to label foods with shelf life, such as vinegar, salt, alcoholic beverages with >10% alcohol content, monosodium glutamate, and so on. Another thing to note is that there are brackets in the standard shelf life of our country. There is actually a difference between the shelf life and the shelf life (to).

Nutrition:

The header should read "nutrition component list" and cannot be changed, and cannot be written as "nutrition label".

The three elements in the header are the item, the nutrient reference value, and the core affecting factor. The order of the nutrients, energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium are the contents.

Product claims, content claims have requirements, need to be marked, and as far as possible in the name does not contain English, such as English as a registered trademark need to extract the entire trademark.

Foods that do not require labeling of nutrient content are specified in GB 28050, such as packed raw meat, raw fish, raw vegetables and fruits, poultry eggs, etc.; alcoholic beverages with alcohol content ≥ 0.5%; total packaging surface area ≤ 100 cm2 or maximum surface Foods with an area of ​​≤ 20cm2; freshly prepared foods; packed drinking water; prepackaged foods with daily consumption ≤ 10g or 10mL (see Article 15 of the GB 28050 Q&A); Nutrition label prepackaged foods, if the labeling of the above product contains protein, low fat, even if the product belongs to the food that does not need to label the nutrient composition table, it also needs to label the nutrient composition table.

There are many cases in which the specific content of imported foods that are investigated and punished each year does not conform to our national standards. There are many cases in which the product name does not match the ingredients, or the product name does not match the product. For ingredient labeling, companies need to find standards to support as much as possible to avoid problems; the ordering of ingredients and the correct writing format can basically avoid problems in this area. Additives in imported products need to be used accurately. The illegal addition is a matter of principle. It cannot contain such ingredients. Once it is included, the products cannot be imported. Imported foods had many problems before 2013. As companies became more familiar with the standards, fewer and fewer problems appeared. The focus was on details.