Production date and shelf life are essential information that must be indicated on food labels. Correctly marking such information is a requirement of laws, regulations and standards, an obligation to be fulfilled by enterprises, and a basis for food safety. Illegal operations, such as selling expired food and falsely labeling the production date, occur from time to time. Public opinion events of production and operation enterprises being punished by administrative penalties are also frequent. So how can you avoid this non-compliance? Enterprises must first understand the requirements of regulations and know how to engage in production and operation in accordance with the requirements of regulations.

The relevant provisions on the determination of production date and shelf life are summarized for your reference to avoid compliance risks in advance. Refer to Table 1 to determine the date of food production.

Table 1 Determination of food production date 

The shelf life of food can be determined by referring to Table 2.

Table 2 Determination of food shelf life 

The production date and shelf life of different types of food are sorted out above. When importing food the following points need to be paid attention to:

1. The production date of health food (with multi-layer packaging) is determined by the completion time of the inner packaging.

2. Regarding the attachment of imported prepackaged food labels, although the regulations stipulate that the production date can not be affixed separately, if the entire food label is made in the form of adhesive stickers, including the date content such as "production date" or "shelf life", it is compliant with the regulations to affix the entire adhesive sticker onto the food packaging..

3. Although the production date of sub-packaged food is marked as the sub-packaging date, the shelf life is marked as the original shelf life.

4. Shelf life is the commitment of food producers and operators to food quality and safety, and the production date and shelf life are one-to-one corresponding and shall not be changed at will.

Food production and operation enterprises must ensure the compliance of production date and shelf life to avoid the risk of violation caused by breaching the prohibition provisions.