The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has recently issued the Announcement on Encouraging Food Enterprises to Optimize the Labelling and Identification of Prepackaged Food Production Date and Expiration Date (the "Announcement").
In order to facilitate consumers in accessing food production date and expiration date, the Announcement encourages food enterprises to make noticeable labels on the main display appearance of the minimum consumer package of prepackaged food; if the minimum consumer package has multiple layers, labelling shall be made on the outermost layer; if the production date and expiration date are marked as "see a certain location on package", such location shall be clear, obvious, accurately described, and easily accessible. Meanwhile, to facilitate consumers in recognizing the food production date and expiration date, the Announcement encourages food enterprises to use text, numbers, symbols, and other marks with a minimum height of not less than 3 mm and a ratio of height to width not more than 3:1. To facilitate consumers in calculating the food expiration date, the Announcement encourages food enterprises to clearly mark the expiration date of the shelf life in the order of year, month, and day, in addition to other practices.