The nutritional composition table has been expanded from '1+4', that is, energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and sodium to '1+6', and the two added items are sugar and saturated fat (officially implemented on 2027-03-16)

On March 27, 2025, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation announced 50 national food safety standards and 9 standard modification orders . These standards are closely related to dairy products, meat products, infant formulas for special medical purposes, infant supplementary foods, food additives, disinfectants, etc. that are consumed daily by the public.

From promoting QR codes on food digital labels to banning the use of 'zero additions' ; from making shelf life indications more intuitive and making nutrition labels easier to read ; from requiring the mandatory labeling of allergenic substances to supporting a batch of inspection method standards ... the standards aim to strengthen food safety risk management throughout the chain and will further protect consumers' food safety and nutritional health.

Up to now, my country has issued a total of 1,660 national food safety standards, including more than 20,000 indicators, covering more than 340 food categories.

Mandatory labeling of allergenic substances
and recommended labeling of 'consumer shelf life'

Among the new standards released this time, two new standards on food labels are closely related to everyone's daily food purchase. Both standards have a two-year transition period . After the implementation of the 'National Food Safety Standards for Prepackaged Food Labeling General Principles', allergenic substances will be mandatory on food labels, and the labeling of dates and other contents will also undergo important changes.

■ What is prepackaged food?

Prepackaged food refers to food that is prepackaged or made into packaging materials and containers. To put it simply, in addition to fresh food, most of the food we buy daily are prepackaged food. 。

Prepackaged food labels are the 'ID cards' of food. In the past, the information that was mandatory included food name, ingredient list, net content and specifications, shelf life, etc.

■ Mandatory labeling of allergenic substance information

When prepackaged foods use eight categories of gluten-containing cereals, crustaceans, fish, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, milk, and nuts and their products as food ingredients, the allergenic substances contained in the food need to be highlighted in bold, underlined, etc. in the ingredient list, or through allergenic substance prompts below the ingredient list.

People with a history of food allergies need to pay special attention to the information on allergenic substances on food labels.

■ Shelf life is marked in the form of expiration date.

The new standard has also undergone many important changes in the marking of food dates. For example, the new standard requires the shelf life of prepackaged foods to be marked in the form of expiration date . Consumers no longer need to calculate the shelf life by themselves, and the display of shelf life information is more intuitive.

At the same time, it is stipulated that food with a shelf life of more than 6 months does not need to be marked with a production date, but only a food shelf life and a shelf life expiration date 。

. New standards for scanning digital labels to obtain food information

have been proposed. China is the first to promote the application of food digital labels in the world, and food labels will officially begin to upgrade to digitalization. Consumers can scan the QR code on food labels through mobile devices such as mobile phones to obtain food label information.

The use of terms such as 'no additions' and 'zero additions' is no longer allowed.

In order to avoid misleading consumers, the new prepackaged food labeling standards clearly state that it is no longer allowed to use terms such as 'no additions' and 'zero additions' to place special emphasis on 。

food ingredients

.

The purpose of prohibiting the use of 'zero additives' and 'no additives' in prepackaged foods is to enable consumers to correctly understand food label information and make more scientific and independent food choices, and to prevent consumers from blindly paying attention to these promotional terms and ignoring the true attributes of the products, causing potential risks to food safety and health.

■ Correctly read the ingredient list and nutritional label information.

If consumers want to know the true properties of food, correctly reading the ingredient list, nutritional label information and other food label information is the key.

• Through the ingredient list, consumers can understand the actual use of each ingredient in the food, including food additives.
• You can fully understand the nutritional information of food through nutrition labels. For example, different foods can use content claims based on the characteristics of their nutrient content, such as high protein, rich in dietary fiber, low fat, low sodium, low sugar or sugar-free, etc. The corresponding claims have strict standards.
• The content of sugar, sodium and other nutrients in food will also be clearly stated in the food nutritional information table. For consumers who are concerned about 'sugar', the correct choice is to read the sugar content in the nutritional information table.

Nutrients '1+4' has been expanded to '1+6'.

The newly revised 'General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods' has also undergone considerable changes, such as the expansion of the scope of mandatory labeling of nutrients and the addition of prompts, etc. , in order to guide the nutritional transformation of the food industry and the healthy consumption of residents' diets.

The new standard expands the range of mandatory labeled nutrients from '1+4', that is, energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and sodium, to '1+6'. The two added items are sugar and saturated fat (acid) , making it easier for consumers to choose consumption according to personal needs and control the intake of energy, fat, sugar, etc.

■ Guide consumers that nutrition labels for salt reduction, oil reduction, and sugar reduction

It is clearly stated in the 'Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for Chinese Residents' and 'Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents' that 'Control the energy supply ratio of saturated fatty acids below 10%''Control the intake of added sugar to no more than 50g per day, preferably below 25g' 。

In order to implement the 'three reductions' healthy lifestyle of salt reduction, oil reduction, and sugar reduction, nutrition labels are now mandatory to indicate sodium content and fat content. This revision further increases the requirements for saturated fat (acid) and sugar on the original basis, hoping to display food nutrition information more comprehensively and further guide consumers.

■ Children and adolescents should avoid excessive intake of salt, oil, and sugar.

In recent years, the problem of overweight and obesity among Chinese residents has become increasingly prominent, and the overweight and obesity rate among children and adolescents has also continued to increase. This revision of the standard requires that prepackaged foods should be labeled 'Children and adolescents should avoid excessive intake of salt, oil, and sugar.' It is hoped that it can guide children and adolescents to realize the dual impact of salt, oil, and sugar on their health , and also reflects the concern for the health of this special group.

• contain these content

After the standard is revised, nutrition labels mainly include four parts: nutrition facts table, nutrition claims, nutrition ingredient function claims and other supplementary information. Among the nutrient types 。

in the nutrition facts table , according to the latest revised standards, energy, protein, fat, saturated fat (acid), carbohydrates, sugar, sodium must be labeled . The remaining nutrients such as vitamins and minerals such as calcium and iron are voluntary labels by enterprises.

Nutrition claims include two types: content claims and comparative claims:

• claims : that is, claims about the level of nutrients, such as 'high calcium biscuits', etc. When the calcium content is relatively high and meets the prescribed claim conditions, it can be called 'high calcium'. Of course, different foods can make various claims based on the characteristics of their nutrient content, such as high protein, rich in dietary fiber, low fat, low sodium, low sugar or sugar-free, etc. There are strict standards for corresponding claims.
• Comparative claim : As the name suggests, it is derived by comparing the content of nutrients in products of the same type. If the content exceeds or is less than 25%, you can use comparative claims, such as 'Calcium increased by 30%', 'Salt reduced by 25%', etc. are all comparative claims.

Nutritional ingredient effect claims, simply understood, are to explain the nutritional effect of a certain nutrient ingredient on the human body. For example, 'calcium helps bones and teeth become stronger' that we often see on food packaging is a description of the nutritional role of calcium. Nutrition label standards have strict standard wording for the claim of each nutritional ingredient and cannot be changed casually. In addition,

other supplementary information has been added in this revision of the standard . In order to increase consumers' attention to nutrition labels, companies are allowed to use graphics, text, etc. to supplement nutrition labels after correctly and standardly displaying nutritional information in the nutrition facts table in accordance with the standards. For example, you can use oil and salt that are familiar to consumers to replace fat and sodium, and use 'calories' to replace 'kilojoules' . You can also use the pagoda graphics and core recommended items of the 'Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents' to promote reasonable meals and 'three reductions.'

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