China has notified the World Trade Organization of a proposed amendment to its mandatory national standard on excessive packaging, setting revised packaging-space coefficients for certain canned foods, convenience foods and coffee products.
The notification, distributed on June 1 under reference G/TBT/N/CHN/447/Add.3, concerns the proposed third amendment to GB 23350-2021, Requirements of Restricting Excessive Packaging — Foods and Cosmetics. Chinese government records currently list the amendment as a draft rather than a published final standard.
Under the proposal, the existing canned food category would be divided into two groups. Canned livestock, poultry and aquatic products would retain a necessary spatial coefficient, known as a k value, of 2.5, while other canned foods would be assigned a coefficient of 8.0.
A new provision for convenience foods would set a k value of 15.0 for instant rice and noodle products designed to be prepared in the container supplied with the product. Drip-bag coffee would also be given a separate coefficient of 8.0 under the category covering cocoa and roasted coffee products.
GB 23350-2021 defines the necessary spatial coefficient as a correction factor representing the space required to protect a food or cosmetics product. It forms part of the calculation used to determine the packaging void ratio. Packaging may be classified as excessive when it exceeds requirements covering void space, the number of packaging layers or packaging costs. Changes to the coefficient can therefore affect whether a particular pack complies with the standard.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the existing single coefficient for canned products did not adequately reflect differences between packaging formats and materials.
The explanatory document accompanying the amendment said the drafting group collected information from more than 40 canned food manufacturers across more than 10 Chinese provinces. Its analysis found that a coefficient of 2.5 could accommodate livestock, poultry and aquatic products predominantly packed in metal containers, while a value of 8.0 was considered more appropriate for products such as canned fruit using glass, plastic or flexible packaging.
The document said the distinction was intended to avoid placing disproportionate restrictions on some canned food formats while continuing to limit unnecessary packaging in other categories.
The second consultation draft was published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in May. China’s national standards platform accepted comments until July 19 and continues to list the project as being at the consultation stage.
If adopted in its current form, the amendment would become mandatory immediately upon publication, with no transition period. A July 9 report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service said the amendment had not yet been officially published in China at that time. GB 23350-2021 was published in August 2021 and entered into force in September 2023. China has since introduced two amendments, covering areas including grain packaging layers and the spatial coefficients applied to milk powder, seafood, soy products, nuts and certain foods for infants and young children.
