It is relatively complicated for China’s food classification, multiple aspects can be related to the classification, for example, to understand the whole food standard system when manufacturing/importing; to evaluate product access and custom tariff stuffs during import etc.

Let’s take classification of lactose as an example. Lactose is classified as milk and other dairy products based on the standard of GB 2761-2017 "National Food Safety Standard Mycotoxin Limits in food". However, in GB 2762-2017 "National Food Safety Standard Contaminant Limits in food", although GB2762 is also included in milk and other dairy products like GB 2761, lactose is classified as sugar and starch sugar. Due to the differences in various classification systems, it is very important to find the corresponding classifications for various foods accurately.


It would lead to huge economic losses if the products cannot pass customs clearance or even were destroyed, which causes by not using food additives or nutrient fortifiers according to China’s food safety standards because of the incorrect classification of products.

According to the statistic results of food sampling information system from China Foodmate, the proportion of incorrect using of food additives in 2019 is 9.33% because of incorrect classification of food, resulting in the use of food additives beyond their permitted scope or range. So product classification is very important to customs clearance.

There are many classification systems in China. Food classification systems are only applicable to the corresponding standard, which was specified by many national food safety standards. In the classification catalogue of food production certification, food classification system is also specified for various products.

Food classification system in China mainly includes three systems: the food classification system from the national food safety standard, the food classification system from the food production certification classification catalog and the food classification system from the customs commodity coding system.

It is important to find the corresponding food classification for finding the limit for GB 2760/14880 in order to use food additives / nutrition fortifier in a proper way and finding the limit for mycotoxin and contaminants in GB2761 / GB2762 due to the complexity of China's food classification system.

And there are available databases developed by China Foodmate including GB 2760, GB14880, GB 2761 and GB2762 for further checking.

We need pay attention to three points when classifying food, including the applicable scope of the standards, processing technology and ingredients.

1. Firstly, for the applicable scope, product standards generally have a description of the applicable scope which we need to check.

2. Secondly, for the processing technology, product standards have a description of the basic process in terms and definitions part. You can also judge the compliance based on this description.

3. Finally, for the ingredients including raw materials, food additives, nutrient fortifier should meet the standard requirements strictly.

It is necessary to classify products accurately according to the product's recipe and its process by comparing with the corresponding GB national food safety standards. The GB standards include product standards and general standards. And according to the product classification, check its category requirement of food additives and nutritional fortifiers for its max. Usage level according to GB2760 and GB14880 one by one, and also need to check corresponding requirement for mycotoxin and contaminants of GB2761 and GB2762 separately according to its category. Besides, for the domestic products, the product classification can be found in accordance to the “Classification Catalogue for Food Production Permission". And for the product imported into China, the food will be classified according to the provisions of the customs code for its tax rate etc.

Any query for the China food classification rules, pls contact us directly.

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