NHPFC Starts to Clean Up and Integrate Food Related Standards in China

The Food Safety Law of China stipulates that imported food shall be compliant with the quality and hygienic test requirements in the applicable Chinese National Food Safety Standards (GB) in China. Therefore, for imported food, the GB standards are very important mandatory requirements.

In accordance with the Major Work Arrangement for Food Safety in 2017 , in order to improve the food safety standard system in China, further strengthen the links among the standard formulation, implementation, and supervision, NHFPC sorted out the current GB standards in China and listed relevant standa rds that needed to be cleaned up.

1. List of GB Standards in China

Up to April 2017, there are 1224 items of GB standards in total formulated and published by NHFPC, in conjunction with CFDA and Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). Among them, there are 11 items of general (basic) standards, 64 items of food product standards, 9 items of foods for special dietary standards, 586 items of food additive related standards, 29 items of nutrition enhancer quality standards, 15 items of food related product standards, 25 items of codes of practice, 227 items of physical and chemical test standards, 30 items of microorganism test standards, 26 items of toxicology test standards, 29 items of veterinary drug residues test standards, 106 items of pesticide residue test standards, and 67 items of replaced and abolished (to be abolished) standards.

Here is the list of general GB standards in China:

Standard Number	Standard Name	Implemented Date
GB 2760-2014	Food Safety National Standards for the Usage of Food Additives	2015.05.24
GB 2761-2017	Food Safety National Standard for Maximum Levels of Mycotoxins in Food	2017.09.17
GB 2762-2017	Food Safety National Standard for Maximum Levels of Contaminant in Food	2017.09.17
GB 2763-2016	Food Safety National Standards for Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticide in Food	2017.06.18
GB 29921-2013	Food Safety National Standards for Maximum Levels of Pathogens in Foods	2014.07.01
GB 9685-2016	The Usage of Food Additives in Food Contact Materials and Articles	2017.10.19
GB 14880-2012	Food Safety National Standards for the Usage of Nutrition Enhancers	2013.01.01
GB 7718-2011	Food Safety National Standards for General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Food	2012.04.20
GB 28050-2011	General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods	2013.01.01
GB 13432-2013	General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Food for Special Dietary Uses	2015.07.01
GB 29924-2013	Food Safety National Standards for General Rules for the Labeling of Food Additives	2015.06.01

PS. Please kindly click here for the CN version download of these GB standards, and some other important standards.

2. Standards will be cleaned up and integrated

Except GB standards, there are other standards in China as well, including industry standards, agricultural products quality safety standards, food hygienic standards, food quality standards, etc.

NHFPC has started to clean up and integrate these food relevant standards. 1082 items of pesticide and veterinary drug standards will be further cleaned by MOA. Except them, other 3310 items of standards will be cleaned up as follows.

• A great many of standards will or have be further revised, transferred, or integrated into 412 items of effective GB standards;
• 57 items of standards are suggested to be officially abolished in due course;
• 1913 items of standards will not be included into the GB system in China.

Actually, some of listed mandatory national standards (the standard codes were “GB” as well) have been transferred into recommended national standard (the standard codes have become “GB/T”) in March 2017. It means that they are not GB standards any more, and the requirements in these standards are not mandatory to compliant with, but recommended. Here are examples of some product standards.

Original standard code and name	Transferred standard code
GB 15037-2006 Wines	GB/T 15037-2006
GB 4927-2008 Beer	GB/T 4927-2008
GB 1534-2003 Peanut oil	GB/T 1534-2003
GB 1535-2003 Soya bean oil	GB/T 1535-2003
GB 1536-2004 Rapeseed oil	GB/T 1536-2004
GB 1537-2003 Cottonseed oil	GB/T 1537-2003
GB 10464-2003 Sunflowerseed oil	GB/T 10464-2003
GB 15680-2009 Palm oil	GB/T 15680-2009
GB 19111-2003 Maize oil	GB/T 19111-2003
GB 19112-2003 Rice bran oil	GB/T 19112-2003
GB 11765-2003 Oil-tea camellia seed oil	GB/T 11765-2003

Without these standards, it does not mean that there is no GB standard for relevant product. For example, although GB 15037-2006 has turned to GB/T 15037-2006, but there is GB 2758-2012 Food Safety National Standards for Fermented Liquor and Its Integrated Liquor. The wines are still mandatory to meet the requirements in GB 2758-2012 when importing. Meanwhile, the GB system in China will become more and more perfect, imported enterprises are suggested to pay some attention to the changes of relevant GB standards.

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