China Proposes GB Standard for Restricting Excessive Package of Edible Agricultural Products

On November 21, 2022, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MoARA) unveiled the draft of a new GB standard titled Requirements of Restricting Excessive Package–Edible Agricultural Products. Any feedback can be sent to [email protected] before January 22, 2023.

As excessive packaging receives unprecedented attention in China, several laws and regulations at all levels have been formulated and enforced. Despite all those efforts, the excessive packaging of edible agricultural products remains intractable, largely due to the absence of legal basis to support the actual supervision. Against this background, this new standard is an attempt to fill the aforementioned blank. It proposes the requirements for restricting excessive package of edible agricultural products, the corresponding testing methods and judgment rules. 

1. Application scope 

The proposed draft is geared to the sales package of four major categories of fresh edible agricultural commodities, excluding gifts not-for-sale articles. Notably, products covered in GB 23350-2021 Requirements of Restricting Excessive Package–Foods and Cosmetics are excluded from the application scope of this standard. In addition, extra protective packages for safe delivery of products selling online and cooling appliance for keeping products fresh are also exempted from this standard. 

2. Interspace ratio 

Interspace ratio (IR) refers to the ratio of sales package volume minus product volume to the product volume. The necessary IRs to protect edible agricultural products are listed below. If the package contains two or more types of edible agricultural products, the maximum value under the corresponding net weight shall be taken into the calculation.

3. Package layers 

The number of package layers of edible agricultural products shall be no more than three, barring meat, whose maximum limit is four, due to special demands such as anti-pollution and low temperature storage.

4. Package cost 

For the package cost of edible agricultural products, it's subject to the same requirements for other food products stipulated in GB 23350-2021, that is, the cost of all packages shall be no more than 20% of the selling price.

5. Weight ratio of sales package 

Weight ratio of sales package refers to the percentage of the sales package weight in the total weight of the commodity. This concept was introduced to address the overuse of other auxiliary materials that cannot be defined as the number of packaging layers. For edible agricultural products, the weight ratio of sales package shall not be more than 30%.

In a nutshell, any violations against the requirements mentioned above will be judged as excessive package. Once the formal version comes out, a one-year grace period can be expected. More information, including the testing, measurement and calculation, are detailed in this draft. For English translated version, please reach out to us.