Label Review Service of Pet Food in China - Regulatory News - Food & Food Contact Materials

Background

Imported pet food shall have a Chinese label sticker on the packaging or directly print the Chinese information on the packaging before being imported to Chinese market. The label of pet food shall comply with “Provision on Pet Food Labeling”.

To view the full Imported Pet Food compliance procedure, please click HERE.

To view the Food and Food Label Compliance, please click HERE.

Mandatory Information for The Label of Imported Pet Food

* Items which are not required for other pet food (pet snacks)

Product Name

The generic name is recognized as the product name of pet food, which shall be indicated on the main display layout of the label. The font, size and color of the generic name shall be consistent, and no part of the name can be highlighted or emphasized.

In addition to the generic name, trade name may also be used. However, it shall be placed after or under the generic name, and its font size shall not be larger than that of general name.

Pet food category	Examples of product name (generic name)
Pet compound feed (usually refer to “complete pet food”)	“寵物全價飼料犬糧 (complete pet food dog food )”; “全價幼犬糧 (complete puppy food )”; “全價寵物食品泰迪幼年期犬糧(complete pet food infant teddy dog food)”
Pet feed additive premix (usually refer to “food supplements”)	“寵物添加劑預混合飼料微量元素(pet feed additive premix trace element)”; “寵物營養補充劑維生素B(pet food supplement vitamin B)”; “補充性寵物食品犬幼年期維生素B (complementary pet food vitamin B for puppies )”
Other Pet food (usually refer to “pet snacks”)	“寵物零食肉棒 (pet snack meat sticks)”; “寵物零食幼犬飲料 (pet snack beverage for puppies)”; “寵物零食泰迪犬咬膠 (pet snack dog chews for teddy)”

List of Raw Materials and Additives

I. List of raw materials: the raw materials can be expressed in ingredient names or category names. While using the ingredient names, they shall be exactly consistent with names listed in the “Catalogue of Feed Materials”. While using the category names, the specific names are listed as follows. All ingredients shall be listed in descending order of their weights added in the preparation of the product.

S.N.	Category name of raw materials	S.N.	Category name of raw materials
1	Cereals and their products	8	Dairies and their products
2	Oil seeds and their products	9	Meats and their products
3	Leguminous seeds and their products	10	Insects and their products
4	Fruit and vegetable seeds and their products	11	Eggs and their products
5	Natural plants and their products	12	Fish, other aquatic organisms and their products
6	Forage and their products	13	Minerals
7	Algae and their products	14	Microbial fermentation products

II. List of additives: the additive names shall be exactly consistent with names listed in the “Catalogue of Feed Additives”. Antioxidants, coloring agents, flavorings and feed attractants can be expressed in their category names.

Guaranteed Values of Product Analytical Composition

The guaranteed value is the nutrition information and quality commitment of the product. The minimum items which shall be included on the label of pet food are specified in the following table.

Pet food category	Minimum items to be included on the label
Pet compound feed	Crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, water content, crude ash, calcium, total phosphorus, water-soluble chloride (count as Cl-), lysine (for dog food), and taurine (for cat food)
Pet feed additive premix	Water content, the major nutritional feed additives added in the product
Other pet food	Water content

Matters Need Attention

Products containing animal derived ingredients (except dairy and dairy products) shall be marked with "This product shall not be fed to ruminants".

Production Date & Expiry Date

I. Production date: it shall include the year, month and day information. The indicating ways can be various, such as: "production date (year/month/day): 2010年3月20日", "production date (month/day/year): 03/20/2010", "production date (day/month/year): 20 03 2010", etc.

II. Expiry date: it can be printed in different ways, such as “shelf life: 6 months”, “shelf life: 2 years”, “expiry date (year/month/day): 2012年3月10日”, “best before March 19, 2012”, etc.

III. Where the date is indicated by making reference to a specific place of the package, this specific place of the package shall be indicated. For example, “production date (day/month/year): see the bottom”.

Net Weight

Net weight and product name shall be labeled on the same display layout of the packaging (container).

Certification of Product Quality Inspection

The certification of product quality inspection shall be attached or printed on the label. When it is printed on the label, it can be designed in different forms such as printing a text box with the words of "pass the inspection".

Other Optional Contents

When meeting the claim requirements of “Provision on Pet Food Labeling”, ingredient claims, function claims, and characteristic claims can be made on the label of pet food. But it must be noted that,

1) All claims shall be supported by evidential materials;

2) It is prohibited to claim that the product has the effect of preventing or treating pet diseases.

Examples of some common claims which are allowed

Examples of claims	Detailed explanation
Beef recipe	The weight of beef is more than 26% of the total weight of the product
Recipe with beef	The weight of beef is more than 14% of the total weight of the product
Contain beef	The weight of beef is more than 4% of the total weight of the product
Beef flavor	The raw material, compounded flavor or flavor enhancer can give the product a flavor of beef
Natural preservatives	The preservatives used in the product were obtained by non-chemical methods, or only by physical methods, heat treatment, extraction, purification, hydrolysis, enzymolysis, fermentation or smoking treatments
Fresh chicken	The chicken used in the product goes only through refrigeration which does not include cooking, drying, freezing, hydrolysis or other processes, without adding sodium chloride, preservatives or other similar additives
Low fat	Dog food “Water content is ＜20%, and fat content is ≤9%”, or “water content is between 20-65%, and fat content is ≤7%”, or “water content is ＞65%, and fat content is ≤4%” Cat food “Water content is ＜20%, and fat content is ≤10%”, or “water content is between 20-65%, and fat content is ≤8%”, or “water content is ＞65%, and fat content is ≤5%”
Prevention of hairball	Prevent non-disease problems
……	……

CIRS Services

Compliance Procedure and Service of Imported Pet Food

Confirm the pet food category
Review if the fee raw material and feed additive used are allowed to use or not, meanwhile, review the use level
If anything incorrect, provide the revision suggestions

Label Review of Pet Food in China

Confirm the pet food category
Review the original label and Chinese label, and provide revision suggestions
Design Chinese standard label

MARA Imported Pet Food Registration Service

As the agent register pet food with MARA
Arrange sample clearance and sample test

If you have any needs or questions, please contact us at service@cirs-group.com.

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