Adhesives are widely used in food contact materials and products,
but the adhesives used between layers of adhesives or composite
materials have problems such as harmful components migrating
into food, which poses a hidden danger to food safety.
On March 12,
2024, the Chinese National Health Commission issued Announcement
No. 1 of 2024, officially releasing GB 4806.15-2024 "National Food Safety
Standard - Adhesives for Food Contact Materials and Products".
GB 4806.15-2024,
as China's first product standard for adhesives used in food contact materials and
products, was officially implemented on February 8, 2025.
The main contents of GB 4806.15-2024 are as follows:
Scope of application:
Suitable for adhesives used in food contact materials and products.
Terms
and definitions:
Adhesive for food contact materials and products: A material
in food contact materials and products that directly or indirectly comes into
contact with food through physical or chemical bonding.
Product Category:
According to whether they come into direct contact with food, adhesives used
for food contact materials and products can be divided into two categories:
adhesives used for direct contact with food and adhesives used for indirect
contact with food.
Basic requirements:
1. Adhesives used for food contact
materials and products shall comply with the provisions of GB 4806.1.
2.Enterprises producing and using adhesives for food contact materials and
products shall comply with safety risk control requirements.
Technical requirements:
a. Raw material requirements
1. Basic raw material
requirements: The use of adhesive base materials for direct contact with
food should comply with the requirements of Appendix A and relevant
announcements. The use of adhesive base materials for indirect contact
with food should comply with the requirements of Appendix A, Appendix
B, and relevant announcements.
2. Additive requirements: It should comply
with the requirements of GB 9685 and relevant announcements.
b. Sensoryrequirements
The adhesive layer for direct contact with food should meet
the following sensory requirements:
c. General physical and chemical indicators
A is only applicable to adhesive
layers that come into direct contact with food.
B is only applicable to adhesives
containing aromatic polyurethanes that may produce aromatic primary amines.
The migration test of aromatic primary amines should be conducted on the final
product after the curing reaction of the adhesive.
d. Other physical and chemical
indicators
1. Adhesives used for food contact materials and products shall comply
with the specific migration limit (SML), specific migration total limit (SML (T)),
maximum residue (QM) and other physical and chemical indicators specified in
Appendix A, Appendix B and relevant announcements for basic raw materials.
2. Adhesives used for food contact materials and products shall comply with the
physical and chemical indicators such as SML, SML (T), QM for additives specified
in GB9685 and relevant announcements.
Label identification:
1. Label identification
should comply with the provisions of GB 4806.1.
2. Adhesive products should indicate
the product category on the label (adhesive for direct contact with food, adhesive for
indirect contact with food).
After the standard is officially implemented, enterprises
should pay attention to distinguishing between two types of adhesives, and carry out
compliance control according to the requirements of the standard to ensure the safety
of adhesive products and products that use adhesives.
