Recently, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Announcement on the Implementation of Digital Labels for Prepackaged Foods (hereinafter referred to as the Announcement), further refining the requirements for the application of digital labels, enriching the display forms of food label information and solving problems such as difficulty in identifying food labels.

The Announcement clarified that digital labels refer to the relevant information displayed on physical labels of prepackaged foods through digital technology or means, and their content should comply with the provisions of relevant laws, regulations and national food safety standards on mandatory labeling of prepackaged food labels.

The Announcement stipulated that if the detailed address of manufacturer is displayed through digital label, the address of manufacturer can be simplified on the label of prepackaged food. Due to the limitation of the physical label layout, digital labels can be used to display legal and compliance information such as ingredient sources, production processes, origin information, consumption method, product traceability and food safety and nutrition.

The Announcement required that food manufacturers and operators should be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the content displayed on digital labels, ensuring that the relevant information is objective and scientific, and not misleading consumers. The content of digital labels must be clear, eye-catching, easy to identify, and is not allowed to be tampered with.

The Announcement encourages the integration of QR code of digital label with other QR codes on package, to achieve multi-code integration and realize multiple functions such as food information display and food traceability.

Announcement of the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation on the Implementation of Digital Labels for Prepackaged Foods

In order to further refine the requirements for digital labels in GB 7718-2025 National Food Safety Standard General Principles for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods, the relevant matters are hereby announced as follows:

I. Digital labels are the relevant information displayed on physical labels of prepackaged food through digital technology or means, and their content should comply with Article 67 of the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China and the mandatory labeling requirements for labels of prepackaged foods in national food safety standards. Advertising, marketing, etc. do not belong to digital labels.

II. The content of digital labels should be clear, eye-catching, and easy to identify, avoiding overlap and stacking, and should not exist any interfering elements such as pop ups or floating windows that affect normal reading. Encourage the integration of QR code of digital label with other QR codes on package, to achieve multi-code integration.

III. The display content of digital labels should not be tampered with. When modifying and updating the content of digital labels, elements such as modification content, modification time and modifier information should be recorded to ensure traceability of the information modification process.

IV. According to laws, regulations, rules and national food safety standards, due to the limitations of physical label layout, information such as ingredient sources, production processes, origin information, consumption method, product traceability and food safety and nutrition that can be marked on the label of prepackaged food can be displayed through digital label. Food manufacturers and operators shall be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the displayed content, ensuring the objectivity and scientificity of relevant information, and not misleading consumers.

V. When food manufacturers display product information of health food, food for special medical purpose and infant and young children formula food through digital labels of prepackaged foods, they should be consistent with their registered or filed content.

VI. If food manufacturers display their detailed address through digital labels of prepackaged foods, they can simplify the labeling of the production address as the name of the county-level administrative region on the label of prepackaged food and indicate it after the manufacturer name. For example, if the production address displayed on the digital label of a prepackaged food is "No. XX of Avenue XX, XX Town, XX County, XX City, XX Province", it can be marked as "XXX Manufacturer (XX County)" on the food label.

Source: NHC

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