China’s Prepackaged Food Nutrition Labeling Implementation Rules Expected for Full Release This Year

On January 10, at the first 2013 press conference held by the Ministry of Health, Yang Yuexin, director of the Evaluation Office at the Institute of Nutrition, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the implementation rules for the General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods are expected to be fully issued this year.

Yang reviewed the specific measures taken since the General Rules came into effect:

First, a Q&A covering more than 70 items in the General Rules has been published on the Ministry of Health website, which can basically address public concerns and implementation issues faced by companies.

Second, the national nutrition labeling health action education plan was launched. The plan emphasizes five tasks, with training as the main focus, to help companies improve their operational capacity and ability to implement the standard. At the same time, an education and publicity plan is being carried out to help consumers correctly understand labels and promote implementation. As Yang said, consumers should understand labels: when shopping, they should not only look at shelf life, brand and price, but also consider nutrition to guide their daily lives.

Third, the technical support system has been strengthened. Under the principles of the major general standard, technical support is needed to improve standard implementation. A label implementation guide has been developed, and the standards database and standard implementation rules have been completed; these are expected to be fully issued this year.

Fourth, surveys and monitoring should be conducted well, to understand how much consumers know about nutrition, how well companies execute the rules, and how many high-sodium, high-cholesterol or high-fat foods exist on the market and in the same categories. At the same time, this work should be combined with chronic disease prevention and control to effectively promote public health.

Fifth, broad social mobilization is needed. It is hoped that every company, every organization and every individual will actively participate in this action plan to better promote the implementation of nutrition labeling.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362002.html