China food safety standards and the GB rules exporters need

China food safety standards are mandatory national GB standards issued by the National Health Commission (NHC) with the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and with the agriculture ministry on pesticide and veterinary drug limits. Imported food must meet them too.

Exporters should start with GB 2760-2024 (additives, in force 8 February 2025), GB 2762-2025 (contaminants, in force since 2 September 2026), GB 2763-2026 (pesticide MRLs, since 1 March 2026), GB 7718-2025 and GB 28050-2025 (labelling, from 16 March 2027) and the GB 4806 series (food contact). Check the product standard for your food category as well, listed in the NHC catalogue.

How the national food safety standards work

The legal basis is the Food Safety Law. They are the core of food regulations in China. Article 25 says they are mandatory and that no other mandatory food standards may be made (SAMR copy of the law). Article 26 lists what they cover: limits for pathogens, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, heavy metals and contaminants, food additives, nutrition for infant and special-group foods, labels, production hygiene and test methods.

Under Article 27, the NHC issues the standards together with SAMR. Pesticide and veterinary drug residue limits are set by the NHC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), with SAMR. Article 31 says the standards must be free to the public. A 2025 amendment, in force since 1 December 2025, changed rules on bulk liquid food transport and infant formula liquid milk. It left the standards chapter and the import articles alone (gov.cn).

The procedure sits in NHC Order No. 10, in force since 1 December 2023. Drafts go out for public comment and are notified to the WTO, then posted for free reading and download (State Council Gazette).

The CFSA catalogue and where to read the standards

The NHC catalogue, posted in January 2026, counts 1,725 standards as of September 2025. That total splits into 1,486 standards in force and 239 superseded or withdrawn. The catalogue includes 15 general standards. The largest groups are additive quality specifications and test methods. At an NHC press conference on 25 May 2026, officials said about 1,750 standards had been issued in total, with more than 20,000 indicators across 340+ food categories (transcript repost).

The catalogue goes out of date fast. The September 2025 edition still lists GB 2763-2021, which was replaced on 1 March 2026, and the CFSA platform already shows another NHC batch from August 2026. The CFSA catalogue page lags further behind and still shows the August 2025 edition with 1,693 standards.

To read the texts, use the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) standards search platform. It has the announcements, full texts, errata and the NHC's official interpretations. CFSA also runs a separate GB 2760 database.

All texts are in Chinese. The NHC publishes no official English versions. USDA's GAIN reports carry English translations, but they mark them as unofficial (GAIN CH2026-0026). The Chinese text is the legal one.

The key GB standards at a glance

As of 5 October 2026, only the labelling rows are still waiting to apply. GB 7718-2011 and GB 28050-2011 remain in force until 16 March 2027. Sources are the NHC catalogue, the 2025 announcement and the 2026 pesticide standard announcement.

GB 2760 food additives

GB 2760-2024 replaced the 2014 version on 8 February 2025. According to the GAIN translation of its foreword, it now counts nutrition fortification substances as additives and folds in the approvals the NHC issued from 2015 to 2023. It also merges the old "use as needed" table A.2 into table A.1. Where a sub-category has its own limit, that limit applies instead of the parent category's.

Two changes catch exporters out. Canned foods may no longer use preservatives such as nisin or sorbic acid, and some additives, including azodicarbonamide, are no longer permitted (gov.cn).

The list keeps moving. The NHC approves new additive varieties in its "three new foods" announcements, for example 2026 No. 5 with 7 new additive varieties. A draft Amendment No. 1, which deletes 7 flavouring substances, was notified to the WTO in May 2026 as G/SPS/N/CHN/1371. It had not been adopted as of 5 October 2026.

GB 2762 contaminants

GB 2762-2025 has applied since 2 September 2026 and replaces the 2022 version. It covers 13 contaminants: lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, tin, nickel, chromium, nitrite, nitrate, benzo[a]pyrene, N-nitrosodimethylamine, PCBs and 3-MCPD. New limits include lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium in dried meat products, and nitrite in edible bird's nest. For packaged drinking water, excluding natural mineral water, the nitrite limit is 0.1 mg/L (NHC interpretation on the CFSA platform).

Mycotoxins are not in GB 2762. They sit in GB 2761-2017, listed in the NHC catalogue.

GB 2763 pesticide residue limits

GB 2763-2026 took effect on 1 March 2026, replacing GB 2763-2021 and GB 2763.1-2022. It sets 10,749 MRLs for 585 pesticides, adds 370 and revises 23. Vegetables and fruit account for 56.6% of the limits (MARA release). The 2021 version had 10,092 MRLs for 564 pesticides.

MARA also notified a draft of 598 MRLs for 126 pesticides in December 2025 (G/SPS/N/CHN/1356). It was not adopted as of 5 October 2026. Veterinary drug MRLs are in GB 31650-2019 (267 drugs, 2,191 MRLs, in force 1 April 2020) and GB 31650.1-2022 (41 drugs, in force 1 February 2023), not in GB 2763.

GB 7718 and GB 28050 labelling from 2027

Both new labelling standards were issued on 16 March 2025 and apply from 16 March 2027 (GAIN CH2025-0070). Until then the 2011 versions still apply. Per the NHC's interpretation, GB 7718-2025 makes these changes:

• Both the date of manufacture and the expiry date become mandatory, as year, month and day.
• Allergen labelling becomes mandatory for ingredients from 8 groups: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, fish, eggs, peanuts, soy, milk and tree nuts. Cross-contact warnings stay voluntary.
• Digital labels are allowed on a voluntary basis. Follow-up rules are in NHC/SAMR Announcement 2025 No. 5.
• "No" and "no added" claims are restricted.
• A new chapter covers imported foods. The Chinese label must correspond to the foreign text and show the country of origin, the importer or agent and the overseas manufacturer's registration number.

Don't look for font sizes in GB 7718-2025. They moved to SAMR Order No. 100, also in force from 16 March 2027. It sets a minimum font height of 1.8 mm for mandatory items. This rises to 2.0 mm on packs over 150 cm², and 2.5 mm over 400 cm². Dates have a separate minimum: 3.0 mm, or 2.0 mm on packs under 35 cm². Imports may omit the product standard code and the production licence number.

GB 28050-2025 requires a "1+6" nutrition table with NRV%: energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugar and sodium. Saturated fat and sugar are new. Packs must also say that children and adolescents should avoid too much salt, oil and sugar. Exemptions include fresh foods, packaged drinking water, alcoholic drinks over 0.5% alcohol by volume and packs of 40 cm² or less. If the food was made before 16 March 2027, check SAMR's guidance for that category before selling it later.

GB 4806 food contact materials

GB 4806.1-2016 is still the general standard. A revision was notified to the WTO in 2023 (GAIN CH2023-0154), and no final text has replaced the 2016 version.

The NHC catalogue lists material standards for plastics (GB 4806.7-2023), metals (GB 4806.9-2023), rubber (GB 4806.11-2023), paper and board (GB 4806.8-2022) and adhesives (GB 4806.15-2024). Two more have applied since 2 September 2026: GB 4806.10-2025 for coatings and GB 4806.16-2025 for silicone rubber (GAIN CH2025-0216). Additives in food contact materials fall under GB 9685-2016, whose Amendment No. 1 added a separate table for silicone rubber.

Food imports into China and how the standards apply

Article 92 of the Food Safety Law says imported food, additives and food-related products must meet China's national food safety standards and pass entry inspection (MOFCOM law database). Where no national standard exists, Article 93 lets the exporter or importer submit a foreign or international standard to the NHC for provisional use. That route is rarely used. Only 3 products had been approved by 31 March 2026: tequila in 2013 and two dairy powders in 2020 (GAIN CH2026-0026). Article 97 bars prepackaged imports without a Chinese label showing origin and the Chinese agent's name, address and contact details.

The customs authority, GACC, enforces this. Its Decree 249 repeats that imported food must meet the national standards. Overseas manufacturers also need GACC registration. Since 1 June 2026 this falls under Decree 280, which repealed Decree 248. Registration lasts 5 years and the number goes on the packaging. For the 17 categories in GACC Announcement 2026 No. 27, such as meat, dairy, aquatic products, edible oils and health foods, the exporting country's own authority must recommend the manufacturer. More than 96,000 food companies from 178 countries and regions were on the old register as of March 2026 (gov.cn).

To check which GB limits apply to a specific product, you can ask RegAffairs AI, which answers with citations to the source documents.