On March 27, 2025, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued multiple regulations including the National Food Safety Standard General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods (hereinafter referred to as "GB 7718-2025") and the National Food Safety Standard General Rules for the Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods (hereinafter referred to as "GB 28050-2025"), which will come into effect on March 16, 2027. The new regulations impose stricter requirements on the labeling content of imported food, such as the country (region) of origin, date and correspondence between Chinese and English language. To help importers better understand the changes in regulations, Antion sorted out the key contents that need to be modified for label of imported food for your reference.

PART.1 Country (region) of origin

According to 8.4 of GB 7718-2025, the requirements for marking the country (region) of origin of imported food are as follows:

1) If a product is completely obtained in one country (region), the country (region) is the country (region) of origin of the product. 

2) When foods undergo processing in two or more countries (regions), the country (region) where the nature of the foods changes complete shall be considered as the country (region) of origin.

3) If the country or region of filling or subpackaging is different from the country of origin; the country or region of filling or subpackaging should be marked at the same time. The source or the producing country (region) of its raw materials or ingredients may be declared at the same time.

[Examples]

①If a product is produced and packaged in Country A, its country of origin is Country A.

②If a product is produced in Country A and then filled in Country B, its country of origin remains Country A. In addition to marking "Country of Origin: Country A" on the label, "Country of Filling: Country B" should also be marked simultaneously.

At present, many enterprises produce their products domestically, then transport them to Country A for packaging and import them back to China under the label of "Country of Origin: Country A". After the new regulations are officially implemented, the above-mentioned products will no longer be allowed to be promoted under the name of imported products and can only be sold as domestic food.

PART.2 List of ingredients

According to 8.2 of GB 7718-2025, the content of the list of ingredients of imported prepackaged foods in foreign language shall have corresponding contents in the list of ingredients in Chinese: the ingredients that are not declared in the original list of ingredients in foreign languages but are required to be declared by Chinese laws, regulations, and standards shall also be declared in the list of ingredients in Chinese.

[Example]

According to GB/T 31121-2014, reconstituted juice means product made by reconstitution through putting the amount of water that removed in the manufacturing process into concentrated juice. That is to say, if the reconstituted juice is imported from the European Union, even if water is not marked in the list of ingredients on the original label, according to the regulations of China, it still needs to be marked in the list of ingredients in descending order of the amount added.

PART.3 Requirements for correspondence between Chinese and English language

According to 8.1.2 of GB 7718-2025, the requirements for the labeling of Chinese and English language of imported food are as follows:

1) The label of the imported prepackaged foods shall be accompanied with a printed or a pasted label in Chinese. The Chinese label of imported prepackaged foods shall contain the mandatory declaration items required by this Standard, relevant laws, regulations, and food safety standards. There should be a one-to-one correspondence between the Chinese and foreign languages of the mandatory label content.

2) The content expressed in visible foreign languages or traditional Chinese characters in the label shall be correspondent with the standard Chinese characters (except for trademark, name and address of overseas manufacturer, name and address of foreign operator, and their websites).

[Tip]

For other non-mandatory contents, white label can be used to cover them. If it is impossible to cover them completely, the visible content should be correspondent (the main content or meaning of the foreign language can be marked, and there is no need for a full translation). For example, a Chinese summary can be used to describe the content in foreign language: "The label in foreign language of this product also includes brand information, trademark-related information and other contents".

PART.4 Intended consumer group, serving size, or instructions for use

According to 8.6 of GB 7718-2025, new labeling requirements have been put forward for the intended consumer group, serving size, or instructions for use of imported food as follows:

Where the original label of an imported prepackaged food involves the intended consumer group, serving size, or instructions for use, such information should have corresponding Chinese, and shall comply with requirements by relevant national food safety standards and announcements issued by the relevant departments of the State Council.

[Tip]

Unlike the corresponding requirements for Chinese and English language, regardless of whether the intended consumer group, serving size, or instructions for use in the original label is covered or not, as long as the original label involves this part of the content, the corresponding Chinese content should be marked in the white label, and the content in foreign language should not be larger than the corresponding Chinese.

PART.5 Others

5.1 Nutrition information

According to 4.1 and 4.5 of GB 28050-2025, the mandatory labeling content of the nutrition information newly added "saturated fat (or saturated fatty acid)" and "sugar", "Children and adolescents should avoid excessive intake of salt, oil, and sugar" shall be clearly indicated under nutrition information.

[Tip]

The warning word of "salt, oil and sugar" can be placed on the left, center or right under the nutrition information, with or without a frame.

5.2 Declaration of allergens

According to 4.12 of GB 7718-2025, allergens have become mandatory labeling content. If it exists, it should be indicated in the list of ingredients or a prompt message should be marked at a position adjacent to the list of ingredients.

Antion hopes to help food enterprises and relevant industry personnel better understand how to adapt label of imported food to the changes in the new regulations through the compilation of the above mentioned regulations. Meanwhile, Antion can provide consulting services such as standard and regulation consultation and food label review. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions (010-51301566).

Source: Antion

Note: This article is compiled by Antion. Please indicate the source for reprint.