Interpretation for National Standard on Food Safety for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-2024)
The "National Standard on Food Safety for the Use of Food Additives" (GB 2760-2024) Interpretation Materials:
(1) On the Relationship between GB 2760 and the Announcements of the National Health Commission on Food Additives
Our country implements administrative permission for new varieties of food additives. The National Health Commission supplements the varieties and usage regulations of permitted food additives in the form of announcements. From the date of the announcement, producers and users of food additives can produce and use the approved food additives according to the provisions of the announcement. To facilitate the query of standard users, GB 2760-2024 includes the varieties of food additives and usage regulations approved by the National Health Commission in the form of announcements since the implementation of GB 2760-2014, up to the 5th announcement of the National Health Commission in 2023.
(2) The Revision of the Definition of Food Additives
According to the "Food Safety Law" implemented in 2015, the content of nutrition fortifiers has been added to the definition of food additives. The management of new varieties permits, compound food nutrition fortifiers, and other food nutrition fortifiers can refer to the relevant management regulations of food additives for implementation.
(3) The revision of Appendix A
The revision of Appendix A mainly includes the following aspects: First, the method of querying the regulations for the use of food additives in Appendix A has been modified. The content of the original Table A.3 in the standard has been reflected in Tables A.1 and A.2, with the original Table A.2 being merged into Table A.1. Second, based on the latest assessment results of the safety and technical necessity of food additives, some varieties of food additives and/or their use regulations have been revised. For example, the varieties of food additives and their use regulations that have been found to no longer have technical necessity through investigation, such as Amaranth Red, Methyl Orange, Jujube Color, 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid, Carrageenan, and Azodicarbonamide, have been deleted; the use regulations for preservatives in canned food, glacial acetic acid in vinegar, natamycin in fruit and vegetable juice pulp, beta-carotene in distilled spirits, and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides in distilled spirits have been deleted. Third, some requirements for the use of food additives have been modified. For instance, the total amount requirements when Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium, and Neotame are used together in the same category of food have been added; the correspondence between the use of food additives in liquid beverages and their corresponding solid beverages in the beverage category has been perfected; the regulations for the use of sulfur dioxide, Carrageenan, Guar Gum, Dehydroacetic Acid and its sodium salts, etc., have been revised; some food categories that were originally classified as "Other" in the standard have been reclassified, and the corresponding regulations for the use of food additives have been adjusted. Fourth, some basic information of food additives has been modified. For example, the Chinese names and Chinese numbers (CNS numbers) of food additives such as Benzoic Acid and its sodium salts have been modified; according to the latest regulations of the International Codex Standard, the English names and International numbers (INS numbers) of food additives such as Advantame have been modified.
(4) Amendments to Appendix B
The revision of Appendix B mainly includes the following aspects: First, the revision of the principles for the use of food flavors and fragrances. To prevent the misuse of food flavors, further clarification of the use requirements for food flavors with other functions or other food uses, such as benzoic acid, cinnamaldehyde, guarana extract, disodium succinate, disodium fumarate, tricalcium phosphate, amino acids, etc., has been made in B.1.4; it is clarified that the labeling of food flavors and fragrances should comply with the "General Rules for the Identification of Food Additives" (GB 29924-2013), and pre-packaged foods added with food flavors and fragrances should be labeled according to the "General Rules for the Labeling of Pre-packaged Foods" (GB 7718-2011); it is clarified that the quality specifications of food flavors should comply with the "General Rules for Food Flavors" (GB 29938-2020) and the relevant standards of spice product standards. Second, the revision and improvement of some varieties of food flavors. The list of food flavors in Tables B.2 and B.3 has been sorted out, and six varieties of spices such as cumin oil have been deleted (among them, cumin oil and fenugreek are already spices, roselle, pomegranate juice concentrate, corn silk are already common foods, and 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethylthiophene is no longer used in the industry); according to the changes in spice management by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers' Association (FEMA), anethole and limonene have been adjusted to synthetic spices; the Chinese and English names, FEMA numbers, codes, etc., of spices such as naringin (extract of grapefruit peel) have been modified and/or added.
(5) The revision of Appendix C
The revision of Appendix C mainly includes the following aspects: First, the deletion of some varieties of processing aids used in the food industry. For example, mineral oil has been deleted and its usage regulations have been integrated with those of white oil (liquid paraffin); ammonium phosphate has been deleted and its usage regulations have been integrated with those of diammonium phosphate and monopotassium dihydrogen phosphate. Second, based on the latest assessment results of safety and technical necessity, combined with the actual use in the industry, some varieties of processing aids and/or their usage regulations have been revised. For instance, according to the latest assessment results of JECFA, and referring to the regulations of the United States and the European Union, 1,2-dichloroethane and its usage regulations have been deleted; based on the principle of technical necessity, the regulation of using β-cyclodextrin in pasteurized milk and sterilized milk has been deleted; the specific functions and scope of use of hydrogen peroxide as a processing aid have been clarified. Third, the standardization of the Chinese and English names of some processing aids. For example, "light gasoline No. 6 (solvent for vegetable oil extraction)" has been modified to "solvent for vegetable oil extraction", "plant activated carbon (rice husk activated carbon)" has been modified to "plant activated carbon (from rice husk)", the names of some enzymes such as cellobiase have been modified, and the names of some strains such as Talaromyces emersonii have been modified.
(6) The revision of Appendix D
The revision of Appendix D mainly includes the following aspects: First, according to the revised definition of food additives, Appendix D has added the number D.16 for nutritional fortifiers and has added the definition of nutritional fortifiers according to the latest revised regulations of the "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Nutritional Fortifiers" (GB 14880-2012). Second, based on the definition of food flavors in the "National Food Safety Standard for Food Flavors" (GB 30616-2020), the definition of D.21 food flavor has been modified to "substances added to food products to produce, modify, or enhance flavor."
(7) The revision of Appendix E
The revision of Appendix E mainly includes the following aspects: First, due to the rapid development of the food industry, some food categories in GB 2760-2014 are inconsistent with the classification of the food industry, which cannot accurately locate the actual food categories. In order to make the description of food categories more scientific and reasonable, based on extensive research and solicitation of opinions in various food industries, the description of some food categories has been further standardized. For example, to coordinate with the national food safety standards for related food products, some food categories have been modified: according to the provisions of "National Food Safety Standard for Soy Sauce" (GB 2717-2018), "National Food Safety Standard for Table Vinegar" (GB 2719-2018), "National Food Safety Standard for Compound Seasonings" (GB 31644-2018), etc., the products of prepared soy sauce (food category number 12.04.02) and prepared vinegar (food category number 12.03.02) have been classified into liquid compound seasonings (food category number 12.10.03), and "vinegar (food category number 12.03)" has been modified to "table vinegar (food category number 12.03)", etc., and the corresponding regulations on the use of food additives have been revised. Furthermore, based on feedback from the industry and in conjunction with the current state of the industry, some food categories have been modified, such as adding a category for meatballs, deleting the category for semi-sparkling wine, modifying the category for candied fruits, and adjusting the food category for sugar, etc.