To further standardize market pricing order, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and create an honest and harmonious consumption environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the Q&A for Amendment No. 2 of GB 23350\u20142021 “Limit of Excessive Packaging of Commodities \u2014 Food and Cosmetics” on September 6. The Q&A clarifies the definition of tea and related products as well as the method for calculating packaging layers, and hopes that tea industry practitioners will pay close attention and importance to it.
Q&A for Amendment No. 2 of GB 23350\u20142021 “Limit of Excessive Packaging of Commodities \u2014 Food and Cosmetics”
1. What do tea and related products include?
Answer: According to the “Food Production License Classification Catalog,” tea and related products include tea, tea products, flavored tea, and substitute tea; among these, tea includes green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea, dark tea, flower tea, tea bags, and compressed tea. This amendment specifies the commodity necessary space coefficient (k) for compressed tea and other teas and related products respectively.
2. Which types of tea packaging are counted toward the number of packaging layers? Which do not count?
Answer: In the calculation process of packaging layers, the following scenarios for tea commodities are counted as one layer of packaging: packaging with a mesh or perforated shape that prevents the contents from dispersing; open-top packaging combined with other incompletely closed packaging components that prevent the contents from dispersing, such as drawer-style packaging and lid-and-base packaging; combinations of films of different thicknesses with other incompletely closed packaging components that prevent the contents from dispersing; and all other film packaging layers that prevent the contents from dispersing, regardless of thickness, except for the film layer directly adhering to the outermost sales packaging with a thickness of less than 0.03mm.
The following scenarios for tea commodities are not counted as one layer of packaging: open tote bags; semi-trays used to fix contents or packaging; the inner liner bag of tea bags; paper, plastic, or aluminum foil closely adhering to compressed tea; filter paper and cotton paper used in the production process that directly contact the tea; and unsealed inner liner bags in Anxi Tieguanyin (Geally Indication product) packaging.
3. How is the ratio of commodity packaging weight to the mass of the contents calculated?
Answer: First, use a compliant weighing tool to measure the total mass of the commodity; then, subtract the net content (mass of the contents) indicated on the commodity packaging from the total mass of the commodity to obtain the packaging weight; finally, divide the packaging weight by the mass of the contents to obtain the ratio of commodity packaging weight to the mass of the contents.
4. Which products refer to those using freeze-drying technology?
Answer: Products using freeze-drying technology refer to products whose equipment layout and production processes include freeze-drying, and whose sales packaging can identify the freeze-drying process or freeze-dried food.
5. Which products refer to those using puffing\/extrusion technology?
Answer: Products using puffing\/extrusion technology refer to products whose equipment layout and production processes include puffing\/extrusion, and whose sales packaging can identify the puffing\/extrusion process or puffed food.
6. Which powder-type products produced by spray-drying technology, or powder-type products primarily composed of raw materials produced via spray-drying technology, are referred to?
Answer: Powder-type products produced by spray-drying technology, or powder-type products primarily composed of raw materials produced via spray-drying technology, refer to those whose equipment layout and production processes include spray-drying, and whose sales packaging can identify the spray-drying process or spray-dried powder products.
7. Which products refer to instant dried sea cucumber products?
Answer: Instant dried sea cucumber products refer to dried sea cucumber products made from fresh, frozen, or salted sea cucumbers through processes such as evisceration, cooking, and drying, including rapid-dry dried sea cucumber and freeze-dried sea cucumber, where the sales packaging can identify them as instant dried sea cucumber products.
8. How should the note regarding dried edible mushrooms in the amendment be understood?
Answer: This means that no specific void ratio is stipulated for the packaging of dried edible mushrooms, but the number of packaging layers and packaging costs must still be calculated. In commodities including dried edible mushrooms, the packaging void ratio of the dried edible mushrooms is also not calculated. For example, if a commodity contains both dried edible mushrooms and tea, only the volume of the tea is used as the volume of the contents when calculating the packaging void ratio.
9. How should “II. Standard Implementation Requirements” in the amendment be understood?
Answer: The standard amendment was released on March 25, 2024, and will be implemented on March 1, 2025. Among them, footnotes b, i, h, k, l, m, and n shall be implemented immediately from the date of release, and the packaging void ratio of the corresponding commodities should comply with the contents of the amendment.
Commodities produced before March 1, 2025, that comply with GB 23350\u20142021 and Amendment No. 1 may be sold until the end of their shelf life.
The statement in the amendment that “commodities already on the market before December 31, 2021, and within their shelf life, or those exempt from shelf-life labeling, may continue to be sold” only applies to commodities complying with GB 23350\u20142009.
Excessive packaging of commodities not only increases the burden on consumers but also causes resource waste and environmental pollution, while also fostering a culture of extravagance in society. The nation’s attention to and governance of excessive commodity packaging has long since begun.
In August 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation revised and released the national standard “Limit of Excessive Packaging of Commodities \u2014 Food and Cosmetics” (GB 23350\u20142021), which was implemented on September 1, 2023.
In May 2022, addressing the issue of excessive packaging for mooncakes and zongzi, the State Administration for Market Regulation released Amendment No. 1 of the GB 23350-2021 national standard, which was implemented on August 15, 2022.
On August 31, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the Q&A for the national standard “Limit of Excessive Packaging of Commodities \u2014 Food and Cosmetics” (GB 23350\u20142021) and Amendment No. 1. The Q&A explains various packaging rules for tea during the sales process.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
Unit 902-3, 9\/F, Mini Cube, 10 Sam Chuk Street, San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
www.zentea-shop.com Email:info@zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To further standardize market pricing order, protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and create an honest and harmonious consumption environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the Q&A for Amendment No. 2 of GB 23350\u20142021 “Limit of Excessive Packaging of Commodities \u2014 Food and Cosmetics” on September 6. The Q&A clarifies the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yun-tea-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14370,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14262\/revisions\/14370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}