Is the food or cosmetics you buy "over packaged"? On September 2, the reporter learned from the special news conference on national standards held by the State Administration of market supervision that the new mandatory national standard "food and cosmetics with restrictions on excessive packaging of commodities" will be formally implemented on September 1, 2023. According to the new standard, if the packaging of grain and its processed products exceeds three layers, if the packaging of other food and cosmetics exceeds four layers, or if the packaging materials of commodities are expensive materials, it can be preliminarily determined as "excessive packaging".
About 30% to 40% of urban domestic waste is packaging waste
Commodity packaging has the functions of protecting commodities, beautifying products, guiding consumption and improving the added value of commodities. However, at present, some food and cosmetics enterprises in the market have excessive packaging, non environmental protection and non economy, which are manifested as too many packaging layers, too large void ratio and high cost, which exceed the basic function of packaging itself. Excessive packaging and transferring the cost to consumers not only waste resources, but also increase the burden of consumers and cause pollution to the environment.
According to the research, the packaging waste in China accounts for about 30% to 40% of the urban domestic waste. Most of these packaging wastes are produced by excessive packaging. It can be seen that the excessive packaging of commodities not only wastes resources and energy, but also increases the burden of consumers, and the packaging wastes generated cause pollution to the environment.
In order to solve the problem of excessive packaging of food and cosmetics, the State Administration of market supervision (Standards Committee) in conjunction with the Ministry of industry and information technology and other departments, organized relevant standardization technical committees and technical institutions to revise the 2009 version of the standard, and formulated and issued the new mandatory national standard "food and cosmetics with restrictions on excessive packaging of commodities".
"One look, two questions and three calculations" can simply judge whether the goods are over packaged
When buying food and cosmetics, how can consumers quickly judge whether the packaging is excessive?
The new standard specifies the requirements of packaging void ratio, packaging layers and packaging cost, as well as the corresponding calculation, detection and judgment methods. Among them, it greatly simplifies the judgment method of excessive packaging of goods. Consumers only need to check the weight or volume of the goods themselves, and measure the volume of the outermost packaging. Through calculation, they can preliminarily determine whether there is excessive packaging of goods. In addition, the new standard also strictly limits the number of packaging layers. Food and its processed products in food should not exceed three layers of packaging, and other food and cosmetics should not exceed four layers of packaging.
In this regard, Wei Hong, deputy director of the standards and Technology Department of the State Administration of market supervision, further explained that consumers can generally judge whether goods are over packaged by "looking, asking and calculating". "One look" is to see whether the outer packaging of the goods is luxury packaging and whether the packaging materials are expensive materials; "Two questions" is to ask the number of packaging layers without unpacking, and judge whether the packaging of grain and its processed products exceeds three layers, and whether the packaging of other food and cosmetics exceeds four layers; "Three calculations" means to measure or estimate the volume of outer packaging and compare it with the maximum allowable outer packaging volume to see if it exceeds the standard. As long as one of the above three aspects does not meet the requirements, it can be preliminarily determined that it does not meet the standard requirements. From the perspective of environmental protection, it is suggested that consumers should avoid buying over packaged goods.
Set a two-year transition period, and the new standard will be implemented in September 2023
The reporter noted that the new standard will be formally implemented on September 1, 2023, setting a two-year transition period for enterprises and the market.
In this regard, Chen Hongjun, deputy director of the standards and Technology Department of the General Administration of market supervision, said that after the release of the new standard, food and cosmetics manufacturers need to carry out compliance design on product packaging according to the requirements of the new standard, and at the same time, they need to consume inventory packaging and goods for sale, especially cosmetics, which have a long shelf life and a relatively long consumption cycle in circulation. In order to avoid the impact on production and operation activities and new waste, a two-year implementation transition period was set up on the basis of extensive consultation with relevant industrial departments, industry associations and enterprises. During this period, the enterprise shall carry out compliance design for product packaging according to the standard requirements, and put it into use as soon as possible; At the same time, we will speed up the consumption of inventory packaging and commodities that have entered the market to ensure that the products produced and sold after the implementation of the standards meet the new standards.
