Food labels often indicate "no added" or other terms to modify a certain ingredient or food additive to express certain product claims, in order to attract consumers to buy. At present, according to the implementation guidelines of GB 7718-2011 National food safety Standard General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods, when using some words such as "no added" to modify an ingredient (including food additives), it should truly and accurately reflect the actual situation of the food ingredient, that is, a substance is not added during the production process and its raw materials are not used, otherwise it can be regarded as misleading to consumers. And when GB 2760 does not approve the use of a substance additive in this type of food, the producers should not use the "no added" to mislead consumers. However, in the process of labeling, "no added" and other terms still have some irregularities. So on July 27, 2020, "Food Labeling Supervision and Management Methods (draft to comments)" stipulates that words such as "no added" "zero added" "does not contain" and so on, are not allowed to appear on food labels.

The unregulated use of words such as "no added" has been troubling enterprises and consumers. This time, Antion will take a look at the requirements and management of "no added" and other words in neighboring Japan. For the use of "no added" and other terms, Japan has also released the Guidelines for Labeling of "No Added" Food Additives, which explains the common types of labeling on the market.

Mark "No added" individually

It is cryptical to mark "no added" individually. The consumers don’t know what substances are not added, and can only guess. Therefore, there is a risk of misleading.

The use of unregulated food additives terms

The use of "no synthetic colorants", "chemical flavorings are not used" is unregulated. According to the "Japanese Food Hygiene Regulations" "Japanese Food Labeling Standards" and other regulations, food additives include chemically synthesized and natural substances, and food additives should be labeled in accordance with the standard name, does not allow the use of "natural" or similar expressions, "artificial", "synthetic", "chemical" and other terms have been deleted in the relevant standards, so the use of "natural", "artificial", "synthetic", "chemical" and other terms labeling food additives is considered inappropriate, there is a risk of misleading.

Contain food additives with same or similar function

When consumers want to avoid food containing a certain food additive, the difference between food additives not used on the label and food additives with the same or similar functions is not obvious, such as the absence of special instructions, may cause the product better than other similar products illusion, so there is a risk of misleading.

For example, the rice ball product added glycine, when using "no preservative added", in addition to ensuring the truth, should also be clearly marked "using glycine with the effect of improving shelf life".

Contain food ingredients with same or similar function

When mark "no added" on the label, if the function of the same or similar ingredients are not indicated on the label, the consumer may not understand the function of the relevant ingredients, there is a risk of misleading consumers do not understand the main ingredients and the source of the food but also cannot understand the situation that a function is provided by a food additive or other ingredients.

For example, white soy sauce products use "yeast extract". When using "no added seasoning (amino acids, etc.)", in addition to ensuring the truth, it should be clearly labeled "using yeast extract with amino acids as the main ingredient".

Words like health and safety

The safety assessment of food additives has been carried out, and the standardized use of food additives in accordance with regulations does not pose any risk to human health. The use of words such as health and safety by operators has no basis, and has no correlation with food additives, so there is a risk of misleading.

Words except health, safety and so on

If marking "it tastes better without colorants", but there is no valid supporting documentation to prove the causal relationship between colorants and good taste, there is a risk of misleading.

Labeling food additives on foods not intended to use

If a food additive is not commonly used in a certain type of product, when consumers want to avoid food containing a food additive, it can mislead consumers that the product is superior to other products that are not labeled, thus causing misinformation.

Labelling of food processing AIDS or residues (substances that cannot be identified)

Regarding the labeling of food additives, the operator should confirm the raw materials manufacturing or processing process of the product, and if the labeling is not based on the results of the confirmation, it will create the risk of misleading.

Over-emphasis

If you can ensure that the content of the label is true and based, although it can not immediately determine that is inconsistent, it uses fonts, size, color and other to specially emphasis on “no added”, because of repeated emphasis, hindering the ability of consumers to identify, easy to mislead the product does not add any food additives, resulting in the risk of misinformation.

Antion hopes that after the translation and interpretation of the "No Added" Food Additive Labeling Guidelines in Japan, enterprises and industry personnel will do better in grasping the trend of regulatory changes, advertise their products in compliance. Antion Consulting provides consulting services such as standard regulations, industry public opinion monitoring, food label audit, etc. Please feel free to contact us (010-51301566) if you have any questions.

Source: Antion

Note: This article is compiled by Antion, please indicate our source if reprint it.