New regulations on food nutrition labeling

Recently, the reporter learned from the Food Department of the National Health Commission that in order to better meet the nutritional and health needs of consumers, my country will revise the "General Principles of Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods under National Food Safety Standards" (hereinafter referred to as "General Labeling Rules"). At present, it has entered the stage of official consultation.
　　
The revised "General Labeling Rules" will force companies to label ingredients related to national nutrition and health, such as sugar and saturated fatty acids. In the voluntary labeling, companies are encouraged to make statements about the content of salt, sugar and oil, and use the core information of the "Chinese Residents' Dietary Pagoda Graphic" and "Chinese Residents' Dietary Guidelines".

“Nutrition label is a description of food nutrition information and characteristics provided to consumers, which can help consumers choose pre-packaged foods reasonably.” said Li Ning, a member of the Healthy China Action and the deputy director of the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center. The main contents of the nutrition label include nutrition ingredient table, nutrition claim and nutrition function claim.

The nutrient composition table is a standardized table for labeling the name, content and percentage of nutrient reference value (NRV) in food. Among them, energy and some nutrients that are particularly closely related to human health, such as protein, fat, carbohydrate, sodium, etc., need to be compulsorily indicated in the nutrition label of all prepackaged foods.

In addition, when certain nutrients are fortified in prepackaged foods, or the content levels and physiological functions of certain nutrients are emphasized, for example, a certain food wants to be labeled "rich in certain nutrients", these nutrients The information is also mandatory to be indicated in the nutritional composition table.

"The content of the new nutrition label also includes nutrition claims and nutrient component function claims." Li Ning introduced that nutrition claims are descriptions and statements of the nutritional characteristics of foods. Nutrition component function claims are for certain nutrients that can maintain the normal growth, development and development of the human body. Description of normal physiological functions and other functions. "For example, it is possible to indicate that'calcium helps bones and teeth become healthier' in the nutrition label. Such claims will help consumers further understand the physiological effects of nutrients in food." Li Ning said.

Yang Yuexin, chairman of the Chinese Nutrition Society, said that through the implementation of nutrition labels that indicate the content of fat, sugar, and sodium, consumers' awareness of nutrition and health can be improved, and the whole society can be encouraged to participate in salt, oil, and sugar reduction actions.

"Nutrition labels have a guiding role for food production companies and are conducive to standardizing the correct labeling of food nutrients." said Zhou Rui, R&D manager of Daoxiangcun Food Group Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch. When companies develop and produce food, they need to pay attention to consumers. In this sense, the nutrition and safety issues of food products are also effective measures to guide enterprises to continuously optimize and upgrade products.

Liu Jinfeng, Director of the Food Department of the National Health Commission, said that in the future, the National Health Commission will steadily advance the revision of nutrition labeling standards in accordance with the requirements of reasonable dietary actions, "increase the mandatory labeling of sugars such as sucrose, and encourage enterprises to implement low sugar Or the “sugar-free” claim, and actively promote the use of “Front Package Labeling (FOP)” information on food packaging to help consumers quickly choose healthy foods.”