Relevant Regulations on Green Food Packaging

The state has stepped up supervision and inspection of the safety and hygiene of food itself, implemented the assured-quality food programme, introduced the QS certification and market access systems, and carried out supervision, inspection and testing of the hygiene and safety of food packaging materials themselves. It has exposed a number of cases of excessive benzene levels in food packaging bags, which aroused great concern throughout society. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine monitors and safeguards the quality and safety of food packaging by reviewing market access for products such as plastic packaging, containers and utensils for food use and issuing production licences.

The problems existing in the packaging of green food and of uncertified food are basically the same. Judging from the development history of green food and the related standard-setting process and quality supervision, real attention to environmentally friendly packaging for food came relatively late, and the "General Rules for Green Food Packaging" was formally issued only in the second half of 2006.

The "General Rules for Green Food Packaging" lays down the principles that the packaging of green food must follow, including the requirements for green food packaging, the selection of packaging materials, packaging dimensions, packaging inspection, sampling, marking and labelling, and storage and transportation. The rules require that appropriate packaging materials, containers, forms and methods be selected according to the different kinds of green food so as to meet the basic requirements of food packaging. The volume and mass of packaging should be kept to a low level, and packaging should be reduced. Where technical conditions permit and this is consistent with the relevant provisions for the commodity, reusable packaging should be selected; if the packaging cannot be reused, the packaging materials should be recyclable; and if they cannot be recycled, the packaging waste should be degradable.

With regard to plastic packaging, the rules specifically state: the packaging materials used should be reusable, recyclable or degradable; on the premise of protecting the contents intact and undamaged, single-material materials should be used as far as possible; the monomer content of any polyvinyl chloride products used should meet the requirements of GB 9681; any polystyrene resin or moulded products used should meet the requirements of the corresponding national standards; products such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyurethane (PUR) containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFS) must not be used; and it is particularly stressed that the ink used for printing marks on the outer packaging of products or the adhesive used for applying labels should be non-toxic and should not come into direct contact with food.

What the rules put forward for the packaging of green food are mostly principled requirements, and there are still no more detailed and stringent data standards, which is indeed a consideration of the actual situation of China's food industry and packaging industry.

In January 2008, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on Restricting the Production, Sale and Use of Plastic Shopping Bags", which expressly ordered that "from June 1, 2008, the production, sale and use of plastic bags thinner than 0.025 mm shall be banned nationwide", and that paid use of plastic shopping bags shall be implemented in all commodity retail outlets such as supermarkets, shopping malls and farmers' markets. On February 10, 2008, the draft for public comment on the national standard for plastic bags published by the relevant state departments laid down clear provisions in many respects for the long-unregulated manufacture, transport and storage, and sale of plastic bags. The introduction of the national standard for plastic bags has raised the threshold for the industry and also brought new business opportunities for green packaging.

Relevant experts suggest that China promptly formulate a packaging law making it clear that clean energy and raw materials must be used in the production of packaging products and, in legislative form, prohibiting the use of packaging materials containing harmful components as well as packaging containers and materials that fail to reach the recycling ratio or cannot be reused; that quantitative standards for excessive packaging be drawn up as soon as possible to explicitly prohibit excessive packaging or single-use packaging; that it be stipulated that the generation of packaging waste be avoided, that enterprises must recycle and reuse packaging waste or use it as usable energy, and that the remaining packaging waste be landfilled in an environmentally compatible manner; and that the government should advocate the purchase and use of green packaging goods conducive to environmental protection and formulate preferential policies in areas such as industry, finance, credit and taxation.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362276.html