When making a nutrition claim or nutrient function claim on food package you must comply with the requirements of GB 28050 and GB 7718.

This case study is designed to help you comply with GB 28050 and GB 7718 if you choose to make a nutrition claim or nutrient function claim on your food product. It also explains the requirements for authorization of new claims.

In the following, a real case is used to demonstrate the label standard.

" Nutrition Claim " Requirement Demonstrated

We often see "rich in calcium" and "low fat" on the food packaging. Can such claims be made by the food production enterprises?

The National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center expert group answered: “Rich in calcium” and “low fat” are all nutrition claims. Those claims are all descriptive statements about the nutritional characteristics of food. All foods shall not be claimed casually with nutritional characteristics, and only those that meet the requirements of the food standards can be claimed. According to Chinese standards, if a mineral content is claimed to be "rich" or "high", the mineral content per 100 grams of food should be greater than or equal to 30% nutrient reference value (NRV). Or the mineral content in every 100 milliliters of food shall greater than or equal to 15% NRV, or the content of the mineral per 420 kJ shall greater than or equal to 10% NRV. 

Calcium has an NRV of 800 mg. Therefore, for liquid milk, it can be called "high calcium milk" by satisfying greater than or equal to 120 mg of calcium per 100 ml of milk. Products with a fat content of less than or equal to 3 g / 100 g (or 1.5 g / 100 ml) can claim "low fat". Currently, the fat content of low-fat milk on the market is generally 0.5% to 1%; when the fat content of the product is less than or equal to 0.5% It can be called "skimmed milk" and because the fat content is too low, the fat term on the label should be marked as "0". "Low sugar" means that the sugar content in a 100 g or 100 ml food product is less than or equal to 5 g, and "no sugar" means that the sugar content per 100 g or per 100 ml of the food is equal to or lower than 0.5 g. Sugar is one of the carbohydrates. At this time, there are two cases in the nutrient composition of the product: one is directly labeled as 0 for carbohydrate content, and the other is labeled as 0 for carbohydrate content. The content of sugar is 0. When the energy in the food is less than 17 kJ/100 g (solid) or 100 ml (liquid), the claim of "0 energy" can be made. That is to say, a beverage labeled "0 energy" does not mean that there is really no energy in the beverage. However, due to the low content, its intake has little effect on the human body, so it is marked as “0”.