Does the commodity label indicate that catering is exclusively for legal compliance?

● How to distinguish between labels and advertisements on food packaging

When consumers buy food, they will naturally be attracted by some words and graphics on the packaging. Sometimes these words and graphics on the packaging look a bit like "advertisements", but they feel that they belong to the contents of food labels, and they are often "confused". Is it a label or an advertisement?

according to the definition of food label in General Rules for Labeling in prepackaged foods (GB 7718-211): "Food label refers to the words, figures, symbols and all descriptions on food packaging."

article 2 of the advertising law stipulates: "this law is applicable to commercial advertising activities in which commodity operators or service providers directly or indirectly introduce the commodities or services they promote through certain media and forms within the territory of the people's Republic of China." In other words, the words, graphics and symbols used on food labels belong to the media if they have the function of promoting goods, which conforms to the connotation of "advertising". And some words, graphics and other propaganda words on food labels may be their own propaganda words when advertising. It can be seen that food labels may compete with advertisements. That is, the words, figures and symbols on food packaging may be labels or advertisements.

article 71 of the food safety law stipulates that the labels and instructions of foods and food additives shall not contain false contents and shall not involve the functions of disease prevention and treatment. Article 73 of the law stipulates that the contents of food advertisements shall be true and lawful, and shall not contain false contents, and shall not involve the functions of disease prevention and treatment. Articles 78 and 79 also have similar provisions on health care products. Obviously, the separate provisions on "labeling" and "advertising" of food and health food indicate that they are in a parallel position, and there will be differences in the legal application of false propaganda and illegal punishment. Therefore, the Food Safety Law also stipulates these two legal responsibilities separately.

● Standardization of packaging labels for food and health care products

No matter in the field of production or sales, no matter whether it is a production enterprise or a food operator, it is possible for them to face administrative penalties and lawsuits because of the labels and advertisements on the packaging of food and health care foods. If we only pay attention to product quality control and ensure food safety, and ignore the "external needs" of food, we will easily bring losses to enterprises including fines, reputation and operation. Therefore, it is very important to grasp some laws and regulations on food packaging labels in time, do things according to regulations, and do a good job in pre-audit and production review of packaging materials. As a food supervision department, it is also "imperative" to strengthen the publicity of food packaging labels and advertising knowledge. Here, the author extracts the contents of food, health food packaging labels and advertisements that may involve complaints and reports of "hardest hit areas", and the labeling regulations that are most likely to be "forgotten" require a block list for reference.

(1) Requirements for labeling contents on food packaging

1. When labeling names that are easy to misunderstand food attributes, such as "newly created name", "strange name", "transliterated name", "brand name", "regional slang name" or "trademark name", a name or classification specified by national standards and industry standards shall be marked with the same font size in the vicinity of the indicated name. The name of a food which is made of two or more kinds of food by physical mixing and has uniform appearance and is difficult to separate from each other should reflect the mixed attribute and classification (generic) name of the food; Foods made from animal and plant foods and made by specific processing techniques to imitate the characteristics of individuals, organs and tissues of other organisms should be prefixed with the words "artificial", "imitation" or "vegetarian" and marked with the classification (generic) name of the real attributes of the food.

2. Food labels should indicate the origin of food (whether the origin of food is consistent with the producer's address or not, it is an identification item that must be marked), and the origin of food should be marked to prefecture-level regions (sub-provincial cities and prefecture-level cities such as municipalities directly under the central government and cities with separate plans) according to administrative divisions. ）。

3. The food label shall indicate the name, address and contact information of the producer. The name and address of the producer shall be the name and address of the producer who is legally registered and can bear the responsibility for product quality.

4. The food label shall clearly indicate the date of production and shelf life of the food, and indicate the storage conditions in accordance with the relevant regulations. Beverage, wine, vinegar, edible salt and solid sugar with an ethanol content of more than 1% (including 1%) can be exempted from labeling the shelf life. The marking method of the date shall conform to the provisions of national standards or be expressed by "year, month and day".

5. The net content shall be marked on the label of quantitatively packed food, and the specifications shall be marked according to the requirements of relevant regulations. For food containing solid and liquid two-phase substances, in addition to the net content, the content of drained matter (solid matter) should also be marked. The net content should be arranged on the same display page of food packaging as the food name. The labeling of net content shall conform to the provisions of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Quantitative Packaging Commodities Measurement.

6. The food label shall indicate the ingredients or ingredient list of the food. The ingredients in the ingredient list shall be marked according to the descending order of the added amount in the production and processing of food, and the ingredients with the added amount of prepackaged foods not exceeding 2% may not be arranged in descending order, and the specific marking method shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of national standards. For compound ingredients, they shall be marked with other ingredients in the list of ingredients according to the labeling requirements stipulated by relevant national standards in descending order of adding amount. Where the so-called "compound additives" are used, each compound component and other directly used food additives shall be marked together under the item of food additives in descending order of addition. Where sweeteners, preservatives and colorants are directly used in food, the specific names shall be marked under food additives in the ingredient list; Where other food additives are used, the specific name, type or code may be marked. The scope and amount of use of food additives shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of national standards. Food additives directly used in food do not include food additives contained in other ingredients except food additives added in the production of processed food. The basic substances in nutritional fortifiers, food spices and gum-based sweets can be marked in the ingredient list instead of food additives. Processing AIDS may not be marked in the ingredient list. The main and supplementary foods specially designed for infants and other specific groups shall also be marked with the main nutritional components and their contents.

7. The food label shall indicate the national standards, industry standards, local standards or the registered enterprise standards.

8. If the standards for food implementation clearly require the labeling of food quality grade and processing technology, it shall be labeled accordingly.

9. For the food subject to the production license management, the food producers who have obtained the new license and changed the license shall mark the new food production license number on the food packaging or label, instead of the "QS" mark. From October 1, 218, food producers can no longer use the original packaging, labels and "QS" marks. If the entrusted enterprise has its food production license for entrusted production and processing, the number of the production license of the entrusted enterprise or the entrusted enterprise may be marked.

1. If mixed non-edible products are easy to be eaten by mistake, and improper use is easy to cause personal injury, warning signs or warning instructions in Chinese shall be marked on the logo.

11. In case of any of the following circumstances, the Chinese description shall be marked on the food label:

(1) The medical clinic proves that it is easy to cause harm to special groups;

(2) treated with ionizing radiation or ionizing energy;

(3) It belongs to genetically modified food or contains legal genetically modified raw materials;

(4) In accordance with laws, regulations and national standards, other Chinese descriptions should be marked.

12. Imported prepackaged foods and food additives shall have Chinese labels; If there should be a manual according to law, there should also be a Chinese manual. The label instructions shall comply with the Food Safety Law and other laws, administrative regulations and national standards for food safety, and specify the origin of food and the name, address and contact information of domestic agents. Prepackaged foods does not have a Chinese label or manual, or the label or manual does not meet the requirements, so it may not be imported.

13. The label of prepackaged foods for special dietary uses should meet the basic requirements specified in GB7718-211, and also meet the following requirements:

(1) It should not involve the functions of disease prevention and treatment;

(2) It shall comply with the relevant provisions of labels and instructions in the corresponding product standards of foods for special dietary uses for prepackaged products;

(3) We should not claim the content and function of the essential ingredients in infant formula food of -6 months old.