F&B Technical Requirements and Labelling

guideline| 28 November 2017

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The F&B market in China has always been fruitful and it is considered the world’s largest market. However, with the approval of the “National Nutrition Program 2017-2030” and the Food Safety Law released in 2015, China is significantly shaping its food industry.

The higher demand for health food is driving more and more sales amongst the growing Chinese middle class (225 million people). This, together with 60 to 70 million upper-class people, is the target of food and beverage importing companies, food manufacturers, and producers.

In 2014 the European Union confirmed itself as the first trade partner with China for F&B, with EUR 8.2 billion in export value.

To grasp the opportunities of the market, this updated version of the 2015 guideline on “F&B Technical Requirements and Labelling” takes into consideration all the recent changes, including also the regulatory aspects of the popular Cross-Border E-Commerce.

Also, it provides a step-by-step guide to assist EU SMEs in understanding the export process.

Contents

1. Introduction Pre-Packaged F&B Market

2. Regulatory Framework Covering Pre-packaged Products

  • Chinese Standards and the Food Safety System
  • Law and Regulations Related to Pre-packaged Products
  • General Standards

3. Step by step Guide

4. Time Frame and Cost

  • Overall Time for Import Procedures
  • Cost Estimates

5. Challenges and Recommendations

  • Food Safety Channel
  • Recommendations

6. Annex

  • Complementary Information about the EU SME Centre

This report was published during the EU SME Centre in China Phase II (2014-2020), which was funded by the European Union (ICI+/2014/346-276).

The report was drafted in in collaboration with external creators, who worked under service agreements with the Consortium running the EU SME Centre Phase II. The copyrights and intellectual property of this publication belong to the Consortium partner China-Britain Business Council. The latter was authorised by and acted on behalf of the Consortium running EU SME Centre in China Phase II. The China-Britain Business Council, which is currently part of the Consortium running the EU SME Centre in China Phase III, has granted the rights of use of this report to the current Consortium. The report is therefore re-published and made available during the EU SME Centre Phase III.

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  • A comprehensive database of service providers with contact information