China's National Health Commission (NHC) and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) posted Announcement No. 6 of 2026 on September 22, 2026, publishing 50 national food safety standards and modification sheets under the Food Safety Law. The notice itself is dated August 18, 2026. The batch is headlined by GB 31668-2026 Milk Protein, China's first dedicated product standard for industrial milk protein, and adds three contamination-control codes covering acrylamide, lead, and tin in tinplate canned food.
Xinhua republished the complete notice the same day. The 50 items split into 29 new or revised 2026 GB texts and 21 modification sheets to existing additive, colour, and dairy-method standards. Full texts are on the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) National Food Safety Standard Retrieval Platform.
What did Announcement No. 6 actually publish?
Four clusters sit inside the 50-item list. First, product and process-control codes: GB 31668-2026 Milk Protein (concentrated and isolated industrial milk protein), GB 22570-2026 Complementary Food Nutrient Supplements and Preschool-Children Nutrient Supplements (replacing GB 22570-2014), GB 31665-2026 acrylamide contamination control for fried and baked foods made from potato, cereals, or coffee beans, GB 31666-2026 lead contamination control across raw-material production, processing, storage, and transport, and GB 31667-2026 tin contamination control for tinplate canned foods.
Second, additive specifications: sodium alginate (GB 1886.243-2026), capsicum oleoresin (GB 1886.389-2026), erythritol (GB 1886.390-2026), and the General Rules for Food Flavorings (GB 29938-2026, replacing GB 29938-2020). Third, a large GB 5009 methods package, including a rewritten PFAS method (GB 5009.253-2026) that expands the 2016 PFOS and PFOA animal-food method to 30 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances across food matrices, plus mycotoxin, fatty-acid, PCB, tetrodotoxin, and novel-ingredient methods, and a new Pig-a gene mutation test (GB 15193.31-2026). Fourth, 21 modification sheets, mostly Amendment No. 1 to colour and emulsifier additive GBs, plus GB 31607-2021 Amendment No. 1 on pathogenic-bacteria limits in bulk ready-to-eat food.
Who has to comply, including exporters into China?
Every food producer, processor, additive manufacturer, and designated laboratory placing food on the Chinese market must apply the GB texts that cover their products. National food safety standards are the binding technical floor under the Food Safety Law (Articles 25 to 32). Overseas producers exporting to China, including facilities registered with the General Administration of Customs (GACC), face the same GB floor at the border as domestic plants: a milk-protein ingredient, an erythritol specification, or a PFAS laboratory method that is out of date is a market-access problem, not a documentation nicety.
The exposed commercial audience is identifiable by cluster. Dairy and ingredient companies must spec GB 31668-2026 and GB 22570-2026. Fried, baked, and coffee processors must build GB 31665-2026 acrylamide process controls. Canneries using tinplate must implement GB 31667-2026. Additive plants must update specifications and the already-in-force modification sheets. In-house and third-party labs must validate the new GB 5009 methods, in particular GB 5009.253-2026, before the February 18, 2027 method date.
When does each cluster take effect?
The announcement lists codes and names only. Each GB text carries its own implementation date. The texts posted to the CFSA platform stagger the batch as follows.
| Cluster | Headline codes | Implementation date |
|---|---|---|
| Additive, colour, and dairy-method modification sheets (21 items) | GB 1886 series, GB 4479.1, GB 4481.1, GB 5413.30, others | August 18, 2026 (already in force) |
| Most analytical methods, additive specifications, flavorings, Pig-a test | GB 5009.253, GB 1886.390, GB 29938, GB 15193.31 | February 18, 2027 |
| Pathogenic-bacteria limits in bulk ready-to-eat food, Amendment No. 1 | GB 31607-2021 | March 16, 2027 |
| Product standards, contamination-control codes, and fatty-acid methods | GB 31668, GB 22570, GB 31665 to GB 31667, GB 5009.168, GB 5413.36 | August 18, 2027 |
The 21 modification sheets were already in force on the August 18, 2026 issuance date, five weeks before the NHC webpage went up. Teams that waited for the September 22 posting are already late on those sheets.
What should food-safety teams do before the next deadline?
Download the 50 texts from the CFSA platform and map each code to SKUs, processes, and contract labs. Additive plants should confirm the August 18, 2026 modification sheets are in the current specification pack. Laboratories should start method validation for GB 5009.253-2026 and the mycotoxin package against the February 18, 2027 date. Dairy, frying, baking, coffee, and tinplate operations have until August 18, 2027 for the new product and process-control codes, which is enough time only if gap assessments start now. Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring of the NHC and SAMR food-safety feeds surfaces this kind of GB batch the moment it publishes, so the next modification sheet does not sit unseen for five weeks.
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Verify which of the 50 codes apply, lock the four dates into the compliance calendar, brief R&D, procurement, and the contract laboratory, and pull the official texts from the CFSA platform rather than waiting for a trade-press digest. Obsidian will keep the China food-safety GB feed in view as remaining interpretation materials land.
