Food nutrition label expresses the basic nutritional characteristics and information of a food, which is the source for consumers to know the nutritional components and characteristics of food, and also an important measure to protect consumers' right to know, guide and promote healthy consumption. The food nutrition label includes a list of nutritional components, nutritional claims and nutritional function claims.
For enterprises and commodity trade, nutrition labeling is also an effective means to standardize enterprise behavior, reduce misleading propaganda and ensure the healthy development of food enterprises.
What benefits will nutrition labels bring to consumers?
The food nutrition label is the source for consumers to know the nutritional components and characteristics of prepackaged foods, and it is also the basis for choosing food according to their own health needs. At the same time, it is also a means for consumers to protect their right to know. This has achieved successful experience in some countries.
Benefits of nutrition labels:
L understand the nutritional characteristics of food;
L guide to buying food;
L dietary balance reference;
L Sources of nutrition and health knowledge;
L guide enterprises to produce more foods that meet nutritional requirements.
With the progress of society and the improvement of consumers' health awareness, China's food labeling focused on protecting consumers from economic losses from the 1970s and 1980s, and turned to focus on protecting consumers from dangerous factors harmful to health in the 1990s. Especially after China's entry into WTO, with the increase of food import and export trade and food consumption, the correct content and form of food nutrition label has become a favorable means of fair trade, which has improved the trade competitiveness and the source guarantee of public health. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a truly independent food nutrition label management method in China.
The legislation and management of food nutrition labeling have been paid attention to by international organizations and many countries, and become one of the important legislative work. However, these legislative work is based on the research and contribution to nutrition, and the important aspects are summarized as follows:
I. reference values and dietary reference intake
Although it is necessary to use the National Dietary Reference Value (DRIs) to evaluate the nutrition of food, in fact, experts and academic groups in CAC, the European Union and the United States do not agree to directly use any data in DRIs in nutrition labels. They think this is unscientific, and there are three main doubts:
1.DRI is used to indicate the dietary reference intake of a population, but it is not used to evaluate the amount of nutrients in food. Incorrect application will mislead the scientific definition and concept of DRI.
The formulation of 2.2. DRI includes all age and population differences, such as infants of all ages, gender changes, labor intensity, etc. Therefore, it lacks practical operability.
For ordinary food, such an accurate evaluation is undoubtedly unnecessary and impossible, but if the figures change, there is no basis and it is not DRI. In order to ensure the seriousness of science, CAC, the United States and the European Union respectively formulated the "nutrient reference values" (NRV) for nutrition labeling in 2003.
At present, there is no such work and foundation in China. Based on the different dietary needs of China people and westerners, it is undoubtedly inappropriate for us to use foreign NRV. Therefore, it is suggested to study, formulate and perfect nutrient reference values NRV for food labeling in China.
Second, the determination of mandatory labeling nutrients
Compulsory nutrients in food nutrition labels vary from country to country. These mandatory nutrients, which are required to be labeled in ordinary foods, are formulated based on the health status of residents and the incidence of chronic diseases, including the state's attention and encouragement to certain nutrients in the population and the purpose of correcting and limiting bad eating behaviors. Of course, when considering these mandatory contents, it is also necessary to combine the needs of international trade, supervision and testing departments and the affordability of enterprises.
Three. Definition and labeling of nutrients
The names of nutrients include chemical names, structural names, sequence names and generic names. In order to standardize and unify the names of nutrients that can be used on the label, it will be beneficial to consumers' understanding and identification, to the management of supervisors and to the exchange of domestic and foreign trade. The definition of nutrients is related to the scientificity and consistency of numerical expression. At present, there are great differences in the definitions and expressions of energy, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin E, vitamin A and folic acid among countries. There are three main labeling methods for nutrient content in Chinese laws and regulations. One is the actual numerical labeling method, which gives the judgment range of numerical reliability as the judgment standard of product quality supervision by regulatory authorities and enterprises. The other is to indicate the content range; The other is marked with the lowest value or the highest value. In international and foreign nutrition labels, the actual value labeling method is basically adopted.
Four, nutrition claims and nutrition knowledge guide
Nutrition claims and nutrition knowledge guides, as tools to explain the nutritional attributes of food and nutrition education, are increasingly favored by consumers, producers and managers. At present, almost all countries have this form of nutrition. The more conservative EU, at the expert committee meeting in 2003, also unanimously adopted the resolution of implementing nutrition function claim and health claim. Conditions for expression and confirmation of nutrition knowledge guide: 1. Scientific and accurate, the introduction of nutritional function and knowledge in classic textbooks should not use controversial or doubtful views; 2. The language is clear, concise and easy to understand, and ambiguous, ambiguous or misleading language is not used. Of course, the claim must meet the content requirements.
Why should China formulate food nutrition labels?
The main purpose of formulating the Measures for the Administration of Nutrition Labels is to guide and standardize the labeling of food nutrition labels in enterprises, guide consumers to choose foods reasonably, promote dietary nutrition balance and protect people's health.
Food label: Food label refers to the words, figures, symbols and all instructions on food packaging. The contents of food labels include food name, ingredient list, net content, names and addresses of manufacturers and distributors, date and storage instructions, product standard number, quality grade, batch number, eating method, energy and nutrient content, etc.
Food nutrition label is a part of food label.
Foods in the following situations do not need to be labeled with nutrients:
● The daily food consumption is less than 10g (g) or10ml (ml);
● Packaged raw meat, fish, vegetables and fruits;
● Foods with a total surface area of less than 100 square centimeter (cm2);
● Ready-made food for sale;
● Products with alcohol content greater than or equal to 0.5%;
● Other laws, administrative regulations and standards stipulate that food may not be labeled.