Recently, some people has told China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) that there is an e-lock on the packaging of rice, which requieres the customer to unlock the rice package by scaning the QR code to get the password and then open the plastic vacuum packaging. Customers question the necessity for such packaging.

Grain packaging has long been included into a mandatory national standard. According to GB23350-2009 standard regarding Limit Excessive Packaging Requirements for Food and Cosmetics, the number of food packaging layers should be no more than 2 layers(included). The package shalll also meet certain void ratio requirement. 

Colleauges in the Dep. of Legal Afairs of CBCGDF shocked and found that thankfully there is no such rice with e-lock selling online. They also found that the related reports were made in 2018 when the shops concerned expained that this is to retain the fidelity. The Apps mentioned by the report has been out of service, which means that they stopped in time and then avoided violating the relevant laws.

According to the standardization Law of the People's Republic of China, the state mandatory standards must be implemented. Article 68 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste stipulates that the design and manufacture of products and packaging shall comply with the state regulations on cleaner production. The competent standardization department under The State Council shall, in light of the state's economic and technical conditions, the prevention and control of environmental pollution by solid waste and the technical requirements of products, organize the formulation of relevant standards to prevent environmental pollution caused by excessive packaging. Article 20 of the Cleaner Production Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the design of products and packaging shall take into account their impact on human health and the environment during their life cycle, and priority shall be given to those that are non-toxic, harmless, easy to degrade or easy to recycle. The packaging of products by enterprises shall be reasonable, and the material, structure and cost of packaging shall be suitable to the quality, specification and cost of the products contained therein, so as to reduce the generation of packaging waste and not to carry out excessive packaging.

Excessive packaging not only wastes resources but also pollects the environment with a large amount of waste. The CBCGDF has filed an environmental public interest lawsuit against excessive packaging of mooncakes. Legal Department of CBCGDF also takes this opportunity to remind businesses that food and cosmetics packaging and voidage are required by national mandatory standards, and there are clear provisions of several laws to prohibit excessive packaging, otherwise they will assume corresponding legal responsibilities. Members of the public are welcome to report such violations to CBCGDF.

Original Chinese article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/z72OAgZztV-yxj5nAZiYIw

Translator/Lucy

Contribution

https://www.paypal.me/CBCGDFChina

http://www.cbcgdf.org/English/ConfirmDonaTion/0.html