Chinese back labels on imported food and wine (中文标签)

Imported pre-packaged food and wine may not enter China without a Chinese label naming the country of origin and the business in China that answers for it. It can be a sticker over the original. From 16 March 2027 a new standard also requires the overseas plant’s China registration number and the eight major allergens.

Your Chinese importer has asked for the artwork for the “Chinese back label”, and the first shipment is booked. If the label is wrong, the goods can be held at the port until it is fixed, or sent back. Once they are on a shelf, a shopper can claim ten times the price.^⁠[1] The rules also change on 16 March 2027, so a label designed this year may not serve next year’s shipments.^⁠[2,3]

Two details are easy to miss. From that date the label must carry the China registration number of the plant that made the food. And a bottle of wine with a lot number on it needs no date at all.^⁠[2,4]

What must the Chinese label on imported food show?

Everything a Chinese-made food’s label shows, less two items that only apply to domestic producers, plus three that only apply to imports. The base list comes from the Food Safety Law, and GB 7718, the national labelling standard (预包装食品标签通则), sets out how each item is shown. The table follows the 2025 edition, which applies from 16 March 2027.

Item	What the label shows
Name食品名称	A name that states what the food is. A brand or transliterated name may sit beside it, not replace it
Ingredients配料表	Every ingredient on the foreign list, in Chinese, plus anything Chinese rules require that the foreign list leaves out
Allergens致敏物质	Cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, fish, egg, peanut, soy, milk and tree nuts, where used as ingredients. Voluntary under the 2011 edition, mandatory from 2027
Net content净含量	On the same panel as the name
Importer or agent进口商 / 代理商	Name, address and contact details of whichever bears food-safety responsibility in China, introduced by that word
Registration number在华注册编号	The overseas plant’s China registration number, or the number its own authority approved. It identifies the plant, not the importer, which the label names by name, address and contact details
Country of origin原产国	Where the last substantial transformation happened. If it was bottled or repacked elsewhere, that country too
Dates日期标示	Production date and expiry date. With a shelf life of 6 months or more, the shelf life and expiry date are enough
Storage贮存条件	How to store it
Not needed on imports	The Chinese production licence number and the product standard code

The producer’s own name and address, a foreign distributor’s name and address, the trademark and the website may stay in the original language only.^⁠[4]

Can the Chinese label be a sticker over the original?

Yes, for most food: the standard accepts a Chinese label that is printed or affixed. Like any label, a sticker must be durable and must not come away from the package.^⁠[2] Foreign text the sticker covers does not need translating. Foreign text left visible must comply with Chinese rules too, and every mandatory item in it needs a Chinese counterpart.^⁠[4]

Two limits apply. Health food (保健食品) and food for special dietary uses must have their Chinese label printed on the smallest sales package, with no sticker.^⁠[5] And a wine that relies on its lot number in place of dates may not have that number stickered over, overprinted or altered, as the next section explains.^⁠[4]

Because the mandatory items must match one to one, the translation is part of the label’s compliance. The translation of the original label that customs asks for at inspection need not be certified.^⁠[6] Having it done as a certified Chinese translation is a practical choice, not a legal requirement.

Does a Chinese back label on wine need anything different?

Wine follows the general standard, with three additions and one exemption. The wine standard, GB 2758-2012, which is still current, adds the alcohol content in %vol and the warning “过量饮酒有害健康” (excessive drinking harms health).^⁠[3,7] A wine made with sulphur dioxide as an additive must list it as 二氧化硫 (sulphur dioxide), or as 微量二氧化硫 (trace sulphur dioxide) with the amount. The guidance sets no level below which it may be left off.^⁠[4]

The exemption is the dates. With a lot number on the bottle, wine of any strength, and other alcoholic drinks of 10% vol or more, need no production date, shelf life or expiry date.^⁠[2] The catch is that the lot number then may not be stickered, overprinted or altered.^⁠[4] It has to be on the bottle as it leaves the winery.

Take a 750 ml New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at 13% vol, shipped to an importer in Shanghai in May 2027. The original label stays on, and a Chinese sticker on the back carries:

• the name 葡萄酒 (wine) with the style, and the ingredients, including 二氧化硫 (sulphur dioxide);
• 750 ml and 13%vol;
• the importer’s name, address and phone number, under 进口商 (importer);
• the winery’s China registration number, and 原产国 新西兰 (country of origin, New Zealand);
• storage conditions and the health warning.

The lot number printed on the glass at bottling does the work of the dates.

The registration number is the one the winery obtains under Decree 280 of the General Administration of Customs (GACC). How a drinks producer gets it, and why customs will not accept the declaration without it, is in GACC registration under Decree 280.

Who checks the label, and when?

The Chinese importer reviews it, and customs checks it at the border. China stopped pre-approving import labels on 1 October 2019. Since then the label has been one item in the food’s inspection, and the importer is the party responsible for checking that it complies.^⁠[6]

If the shipment is picked for inspection, the importer hands customs the original label, its translation and a sample of the Chinese label.^⁠[6] A label that fails on a point that is not about safety can be corrected, and the goods are released once they pass. If they cannot be fixed in time, the importer is ordered to destroy them or ship them back.^⁠[5]

This is one reason the importer’s identity matters before you design anything: its name goes on the label, and it carries the responsibility. Whether that partner buys the goods or sells them for you changes more than the label. The differences are in selling through a Chinese distributor or agent. Goods sold to consumers through cross-border e-commerce follow separate rules.^⁠[6]

How much can a wrong label cost once the food is on sale?

Two things: a fine from the market regulator, and claims from shoppers. A business selling food whose label breaks the rules can be fined RMB 5,000 to 50,000 where the goods are worth under RMB 10,000, and 5 to 10 times their value above that.^⁠[1] A shopper can claim ten times the price paid, or three times the loss, and at least RMB 1,000.^⁠[1]

The Supreme People’s Court has drawn the line between what costs ten times the price and what does not.^⁠[8] Leaving out an item the standard requires is not a minor flaw, and the seller cannot defend itself on that ground. A clumsy translation, or foreign text printed larger than the Chinese, does not support a tenfold claim, as long as it does not mislead anyone about safety.

Say a Belgian biscuit made with wheat, butter and egg goes on sale in Hangzhou after 16 March 2027 with no allergen statement on its Chinese label. A shopper who paid RMB 1,200 for a case can claim RMB 12,000, ten times the price. The same biscuit with “butter” rendered awkwardly in Chinese gives the shopper no tenfold claim.

Which rules change on 16 March 2027?

GB 7718-2025 was issued on 16 March 2025 and takes effect on 16 March 2027, when it replaces the 2011 edition. The Food Labelling Supervision Measures of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) take effect the same day.^⁠[2,9] For an imported product the changes that move the artwork are these:

• The overseas plant’s China registration number goes on the label.
• The eight allergen groups listed in the table above become mandatory.
• “No added” claims are banned, including 不添加, 零添加 and their synonyms, unless another standard provides for them.^⁠[2]
• Mandatory text must be at least 1.8 mm tall and the dates at least 3.0 mm, and no foreign text may be taller than the Chinese beside it.^⁠[9]
• A QR-code digital label becomes an option, but what it shows must match the pack.^⁠[2]

Food produced before 16 March 2027 may stay on sale until its shelf life ends, unless its label breaks one of the new prohibitions. That is how a city regulator summarised SAMR’s implementation guidance in September 2026.^⁠[10]

What is not yet settled for imported labels?

As of 5 October 2026, three points have no published answer. Neither the standard nor the official Q&A says which label a product made before 16 March 2027 but imported after it needs. The standard says every visible word on an import must comply, foreign text included, and it bans “no added” claims.^⁠[2] No guidance says how customs reads an English “no added sugar” left visible beside a Chinese sticker. And GACC has issued no notice on inspecting labels under the new edition.

Market Entry and Structure Advisory sets out what a product needs before its first shipment, from the plant registration to who stands on the label as importer.

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