At present, in order to pursue high profits, some food and cosmetics enterprises in the market design and use packaging with too many layers, too large porosity and too high cost.

Excessive packaging has gone far beyond the basic function of packaging itself. Attaching packaging costs to consumers not only causes waste of resources and environmental pollution, but also damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Chen Hongjun, deputy director of the standard Technology Department of the State Administration of market supervision, said that the research shows that China's packaging waste accounts for about 30% to 40% of urban domestic waste. Most of these packaging wastes are produced by excessive packaging.

Chen Hongjun introduced that the new standard covers 31 categories of food and 16 categories of cosmetics, including tea, wine, cakes, health food, etc. The new standard strictly limits the requirements for the number of layers of packaging. The 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; The requirements and calculation method of packaging porosity limit are modified, and the inspection and judgment rules of outer packaging volume and the necessary space coefficient of different commodities are added. It will be impossible to evade supervision in the future when the initial packaging volume is enlarged and other commodities are added.

The new standard will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023, setting a two-year transition period for enterprises and markets. According to Chen Hongjun, after the release of the new standard, food and cosmetics manufacturers need to carry out compliance design for product packaging according to the requirements of the new standard. At the same time, they need to consume inventory packaging and goods for sale, especially cosmetics, with a relatively 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 transition period has been set up on the basis of widely soliciting the opinions of relevant industrial departments, industry associations and enterprises.

At present, food and cosmetics enterprises need to carry out the publicity and implementation training of the standard, so that the design, R & D and production personnel can better understand the technical content of the standard; Carry out compliance design for product packaging according to standard requirements, and put it into use as soon as possible; Accelerate the consumption of inventory packaging and commodities that have entered the market, and ensure that the products produced and sold after the transition period meet the standards. Chen Hongjun said that according to the standardization law, products and services that do not meet the mandatory standards shall not be produced, sold, imported or provided. After the transition period, the reproduction and sale of food and cosmetics that do not meet the new standards are not allowed in the market. Therefore, we call on enterprises to rectify and meet the standards as soon as possible during the transition period.

When buying food and cosmetics, how can consumers quickly judge whether there is excessive packaging?

Wei Hong, deputy director of the standard Technology Department of the State Administration of market supervision, said that consumers can simply judge whether moon cakes and other commodities are over packaged by "observe, ask and calculate". First, it depends on whether the outer packaging of goods is luxury packaging and whether the packaging materials are expensive materials. Second, the new standard strictly limits the requirements for the number of layers of packaging. When the packaging cannot be opened, it is necessary to ask how many layers the packaging has and whether the number of layers meets the requirements. Third, measure or estimate the volume of the outer packaging, and compare it with the maximum allowable outer packaging volume to see whether it exceeds the standard.

In addition, the new standard continues to implement the requirements of the existing standard on packaging cost. Except for the packaging in direct contact with the contents, the cost of all packaging shall not exceed 20% of the product sales price. Next, the market supervision department will promote the implementation of the new standards. Food and cosmetics enterprises shall strictly implement the main responsibility of enterprises in accordance with the requirements of relevant laws, regulations and new standards. At the same time, advocate consumers to consciously practice the concept of green consumption, and do not buy or use over packaged goods