. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/CHN/33
17 November 2003
(03-6147)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Standardization Administration of  the People's Republic of China
(SAC)
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:           
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   All pre-packaged (filled)
processed food and unprocessed natural food.
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   General Standard of
Labelling for Pre-packaged food (10 pages, in Chinese)
6. Description of content:   This standard provides basic requirements as well as contents of
mandatory labelling, exemption from mandatory labelling, and voluntary contents of
labelling for pre-packed food.
Basic requirements include:
1. All contents on the label shall be easy to understand, accurate, and on a scientific
basis.  Contents based on superstition, derogation on other food, vulgar/obscene
information as well as those contrary to science are not allowed to be described on
the label;
2. label contents of pre-packaged food shall not be described by false words, pictures
or colours etc., that mislead or deceive consumers;
3. label contents of pre-packaged food shall not be described by words, pictures or
symbols that refer to directly or indirectly any other product or characters of otherproducts with which such food might be confused;
4. the wording of labels shall be in standard Chinese, except registered trademarks;
5. the minority nationality or foreign languages may be used on the label, but should
correspond to the Chinese words (except name and address of the manufacturer of
imported food, name, address and website of overseas distributors).  All charactersof foreign languages shall not be bigger than the corresponding Chinese words,
except the foreign registered trademarks;G/TBT/N/CHN/33
Page 2
6. in the case where the surface area of the packaging or container is larger than
20cm2, the height of characters, symbols and numbers of mandatory labelling shall
not be smaller than 1.8mm.
Mandatory requirements on labelling include:
1. The following contents on the label shall be clearly indicated:  name, ingredients,
net content of food;  name and address of the manufacturer;  manufacturing date;
best before;  the product standard code and irradiated food or ingredients.
2. This standard is a revision of General Standard of Food Labelling (1985, 1994) in
line with CAC CODEX STAN 1-1985 (1991, 1999), Food Hygiene Law of the
People's Republic of China, Product Quality  Law of the People's Republic of China.
3. For pre-packaged food sold in China (not including Hong Kong, Macao and
Chinese Taipei) that does not comply with the General Standard of Labelling ofPre-packaged Food, penalty shall be imposed according to the level of seriousness.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
To protect consumers, prevent cheating, and maintain fair trade.
8. Relevant documents:   CAC CODEX STAN 1-1985 (1991, 1999)
Food Hygiene Law of the People's Republic of China
Product Quality Law of the People's Republic of China
Product Label and Labelling Regulation [Issued by The State Bureau of Technical
Supervision (1997) No. 172]
Rules for Measurement Supervision on Pre-packaged Commodities [No. 43 Ordinance of
The State Bureau of Technical Supervision]
9. Proposed date of adoption:
Proposed date of entry into force: }To be determined
10. Final date for comments:   60 days after the date of notification
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body: