China Proposes Revision of Food Additives Standard GB 2760

On December 7, 2017, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment opened an exposure draft of GB 2760 Standard for Use of Food Additives to comment. The latest revision mainly concerns the integration of newly-approved food additives, simplification of annex A, improvement of food flavoring requirements and modification of INS, CNS code, English and Chinese names of food additives.

Integration of newly-approved food additives

New food additives are added in this exposure draft, including those released in No.1 announcement of 2015, No. 8 of 2016, No. 9 of 2016, No. 14 of 2016, No. 1 of 2017, No. 8 of 2017, No. 10 of 2017.

Simplification of annex A

Table A.2 in GB 2760-2014 has been removed and only 2 tables remain, which are “Permitted varieties, application scopes and the maximum levels or residue levels of food additives” and “Food categories and list of exceptions of table A.1”. The new revision is clearer and food additive searching is more convenient. There are also other revisions to annex A, such as adjustment of food categories.

Modification of INS, CNS code, English and Chinese name of food additives

Standard Chinese name of some food additives are listed in Attachment 1 of Preparation instructions. Due to the addition of new food additives, the exposure draft provides a CNS code for 14 food additives, which can be referred to in Attachment 2. As CAC revises INS code system annually, this time GB 2760 (exposure draft) also updates English name and INS code of 68 food additives (please refer to Attachment 3 of Preparation instructions).

Revision to food flavoring requirements

Requirements are more specific in the latest version. As for Table B.1 List of foods not allowed to be added with flavorings and essences, complementary food for infants and young children is newly included. Therefore it is explicit that use of food flavoring is prohibited in complementary baby food except proper addition of vanillin in cereal-based complementary food for infant.

The exposure draft refines the scope of food flavoring items. 8 of them are removed and 2 are changed from natural food flavoring to synthetic one. FEMA code, English and Chinese names of 20 food flavoring are modified. In addition, 22 new food flavorings are included in the updated version. Detailed information is listed in Attachment 6 and 7 of Preparation instructions.

Please refer to following document for the specific proposed revision