China’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has just passed the country’s first set of national standards for food nutrition labelling. The General Rules on the Nutrition Labels of Pre-packaged Foods (GB28050-2011) will guide and regulate nutrition labelling to ensure that consumers know exactly what they are buying and can eat healthily.
In view of problems of exaggeration and false claim in food labelling, the General Rules stipulate that the nutrition labels of pre-packaged food must be truthful and objective in their nutrition information and must not show false information or exaggerate the nutrition and other uses of the products.
The General Rules on the Nutrition Labels of Pre-packaged Foods cover the nutrition facts table, content claims and nutrient function claims. The nutrition facts table is a table listing the name and quantity of the nutrients of the food product and the percentages of their nutrient reference values (NRV). Mandatory labelling information includes energy and the four core nutrients of protein, fat, carbohydrate and sodium as well as their NRV. The General Rules stipulate that if hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat is used for producing the food, the level of trans fat has to be highlighted on the nutrition facts table. They also spell out in concrete terms the content requirements and restrictions for describing the levels, presence or absence, increases or decreases of energy and nutrients in the food.
The General Rules were promulgated by the Ministry of Health in accordance with the requirements of the Food Safety Law while organising the implementation of the Ministry of Health's Regulations on Nutrition Labelling for Pre-packaged Foods. The ministry drew on the management experience of international organisations and developed countries, scientifically analysed people's dietary patterns, the nutritional properties of food, consumers' spending habits and knowledge of nutrition, and strictly adhered to the procedures for the formulation of national standards for food safety. The standards were promulgated after soliciting the opinions of people from different walks of life and hearing the views of the government departments, trade associations, enterprises and experts concerned.
The General Rules will formally go into force on 1 January 2013. The Ministry of Health encourages all enterprises to affix nutrition labels in keeping with the standards and will work with the departments and trade associations concerned to strengthen the work of publicising the standards and providing the necessary training so as to better guide food producers and traders as well as the public to get a better understanding of nutrition labels. Food without proper food labelling cannot be sold on the market after the General Rules take effect.
