According to the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, imported food, food additives, and food related products shall comply with China's national food safety standards. Therefore, it is necessary for overseas enterprises to fully understand the requirements of China's relevant national food safety standards to ensure the smooth export of food to China.

1. Composition of National Food Safety Standards

The national food safety standards consist of four categories of standards: general standards, product standards, production and operation specifications standards, and examination method standards. These four categories of standards jointly control food safety risks from different perspectives. 

According to the Catalogue of National Food Safety Standards released by the National Health Commission, as of September 2023, China has issued a total of 1563 national food safety standards, with 1394 currently effective standards. This includes: 15 general standards, 72 food product standards, 10 special dietary food standards, 639 quality specifications and related standards for food additives, 68 quality specifications for food nutritional fortifiers, 17 food related product standards, 36 production and operation specifications standards, 254 physical and chemical examination method standards, 6 parasitic examination method standards, 33 microbiological examination method standards, 29 toxicological examination method and procedure standards, 120 pesticide residue determination method standards, and 95 veterinary drug residue determination method standards.

Among them, food related products include packaging materials, containers, detergents, disinfectants used for food, and tools and equipment used for food production and operation.

2. Introduction to General National Food Safety Standards

The general standard is the foundation of the national food safety standard system, which regulates the universal food safety hazards and general measures that affect various types of food. The relevant standard details are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 List of General National Food Safety Standards

Foodmate has broken down and organized the national food safety standard general standards with limited quantity requirements mentioned above, forming a corresponding query database for the convenience of enterprises to query and use. If you have any query needs, you can search through the following website: http://globallaw.foodmate.net/.