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China food label requirements: GB 7718 and the 2025 revision

Prepackaged food sold in mainland China carries a label in standard Chinese characters under the national food safety standard GB 7718-2011, with a nutrition table under GB 28050-2011. Both were revised in 2025: GB 7718-2025 and GB 28050-2025 apply from 16 March 2027, together with the Administrative Measures for the Supervision of Food Labelling.

Checked: 29 October 2026

Mandatory items

GB 7718-2011: what every label carries

The name of the food, the ingredient list, net contents and specification, the name, address and contact of the maker or distributor, the production date and shelf life, storage conditions, the food production licence number (SC) and the product standard code. Mandatory words, symbols and figures are at least 1.8 mm high when the largest face is over 35 cm²; the net contents have their own minimum height, larger for bigger packs.

What GB 7718-2025 changes (from 16 March 2027)

Allergens become mandatory to declare; the date marking shows the production date and the date the shelf life ends; digital labels may carry part of the information; and the rules on claims and on the size of the main face are tightened. GB 28050-2025 adds sugars and saturated fat to the mandatory nutrition table. Until the date, GB 7718-2011 is the binding standard; plan new artwork for both.

Imported food

The Chinese label must be on the pack when the food is cleared by China Customs (GACC); a Chinese sticker over the original is accepted if it carries everything the standard asks and does not hide the original. It names the country of origin and the agent, importer or distributor in China; the SC number does not apply.

Non-food goods follow the Product Quality Law: Chinese name, maker’s name and address, specification, and warnings or a date where needed.

Why the rules look like this

China’s food labels are strict because a scandal taught the country to distrust them:

1. 2008 — melamine is found in infant formula; hundreds of thousands of babies fall ill. The Food Safety Law of 2009 follows, and its 2015 revision is called the strictest in the country’s history: labels are now evidence in court, and a false one can cost ten times the price paid.
2. 2011 — GB 7718-2011 and GB 28050-2011 bring the mandatory nutrition table. Every number on it must match the factory’s own test reports.
3. 2021 — GB 23350-2021 limits excessive packaging of food and cosmetics, in force from September 2023: no more than three layers for most food, and limits on the empty space inside. A tall gift box with a small jar inside is no longer a design choice.
4. 2025 — GB 7718-2025 and the labelling supervision measures are published, with two years to adapt: allergens, clearer dates, digital labels from March 2027. Artwork printed in 2026 should already have room for them.

Seasons that sell packs

Mid-Autumn mooncakes and Spring Festival gift boxes are where over-packaging rules bite hardest: count the layers and the empty space before you design the insert, and keep mooncake boxes for mooncakes — mixing in wine or other gifts falls foul of the rules. Double 11 (11 November) moves the largest e-commerce volume in the world, so a pack must survive courier sorting and still show its Chinese label when the parcel is opened.

Who answers for the label

Every producer and every seller (生产经营者). A buyer may claim from either the maker or the shop, and the one who pays first recovers from the other; the importer answers for imported food.

The designer and the printer are not named by these laws — but a contract can make them pay for the reprint. Keep the client’s written approval of the final copy; Drint’s review link records it.

If the label is wrong

Under the Food Safety Law, food with a non-compliant label is confiscated and fined — from 5,000 to 50,000 yuan, or five to ten times the value of the goods when it exceeds 10,000 yuan. A minor flaw that does not affect safety or mislead is corrected, with a fine of up to 2,000 yuan. Buyers may claim ten times the price paid, at least 1,000 yuan — and professional “label hunters” buy products precisely to sue over label errors. At the border, food without a compliant Chinese label is returned or destroyed.

Who else loses, beyond the fine

A wrong label costs more than its fine, and the cost travels down the chain:

1. The shopper — an undeclared allergen can put someone in hospital; that is why recalls for allergens move fastest.
2. The brand — a recall notice with its name stays online for years, and retailers may delist the product.
3. The importer and distributor — stock held at the port or in a warehouse, storage fees, relabelling labour, sometimes a whole container sent back.
4. The shop — products immobilised or pulled from shelves in the middle of a season.
5. The printer — a reprint at its own cost if the contract says so, and a lost client either way.
6. The designer — the reprint blamed on the artwork, unless the client’s approval is on record.

Net contents: minimum letter height (GB 7718)

The net contents sit on the same face as the food’s name. Pinyin or minority scripts may be added, but not larger than the Chinese characters; foreign words (except registered trademarks) may not be larger than the Chinese either.

The figures and unit of the net contents are at least:

1. 2 mm high up to 50 g or 50 ml;
2. 3 mm from 50 to 200 g or ml;
3. 4 mm from 200 g or ml to 1 kg or 1 l;
4. 6 mm above 1 kg or 1 l.

Mistakes, and a check before printing

Customs often stops: a Chinese label with traditional characters only; foreign text larger than the Chinese; a missing Chinese agent or importer; words such as “不添加”, “零添加” or health claims the rules do not allow on ordinary food.

1. Translate the client’s mandatory items into simplified Chinese — Drint does not translate; use their importer’s approved text.
2. Check the net-contents height against the table above.
3. Name the country of origin and the agent, importer or distributor in China with address and phone.
4. Lay out the nutrition table with energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, sodium and NRV%; plan for sugars and saturated fat from March 2027.
5. Leave a clean area if the importer will add a Chinese sticker.

Worked example: a 200 g box of butter cookies

Made in Vietnam and sold in China, the pack reads, line by line (the client’s own names and numbers replace those in brackets):

1. 产品名称：黄油曲奇饼干
2. 配料：小麦粉、黄油、白砂糖、鸡蛋、食用盐、食品添加剂（碳酸氢钠）
3. 致敏物质提示：含有小麦、乳制品、蛋类
4. 净含量：200克
5. 生产日期：见盒底　保质期：12个月
6. 贮存条件：常温，置于阴凉干燥处
7. 原产国：越南
8. 进口商：[名称]　地址：[地址]　电话：[电话]
9. 营养成分表（每100克）：能量 [ ] kJ · 蛋白质 [ ] g · 脂肪 [ ] g · 碳水化合物 [ ] g · 钠 [ ] mg，各附 NRV%

Why it reads this way

Energy is in kilojoules, the net contents are 4 mm high (200 g sits in the 200 g–1 kg row), and the allergen line, voluntary today, becomes mandatory with GB 7718-2025.

How Drint helps

Three kinds of people make packs for China with Drint, and each needs something different:

Free, no account: the barcode generator, the mm to inches converter and the paper sizes table.

1. A business with its own brand — Drint has no label kit for China yet, so the checklist on this page is your check before export. See the pack in 3D before it is printed, send the design to the person who must approve it with a review link, and hand the printer one CMYK PDF/X-4 with the die on its own layer, so nobody retypes the label.
2. A household business — start from a ready dieline cut to your exact box or bag size instead of paying for a die drawing, use your own photos on 3D mockups for your online shop, and keep the mandatory text exactly as you wrote it: Drint never translates or rewords a client’s copy.
3. A designer — lay out several markets from one design, each with its own language and items, keep every client’s approvals in one place, and show finished packs on a portfolio page at drint.io/your-name.

Laying it out in Drint

1. Drint has no label kit for China yet: add a text block for each item of the table above, in the order the law lists them.
2. Paste the client’s copy as they wrote it — Drint does not translate or reword it.
3. Place official marks (symbols, numbers, logos) from the authority’s own files at their stated size; export the CMYK PDF/X-4 with the die on its own layer for your printer.

Official sources

1. 国家食品安全风险评估中心（食品安全国家标准）
2. 国家市场监督管理总局
3. [海关总署（进口食品）](http://www.customs.gov.cn/)

Drint checks this label while you design, for 47 countries: see how the label-law check works.

Lay out the label in Drint

Questions

A summary written to design packs, not legal advice. Read GB 7718-2011, GB 7718-2025, GB 28050 and the GACC import rules, and confirm with your client’s importer before printing.