New standard for adhesives for food contact materials and products GB 4806.15-2024 released

On March 12, 2024, the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued Announcement No. 1 of 2024, officially releasing the GB 4806.15-2024 "National Food Safety Standard - Adhesives for Food Contact Materials and Products" standard. This standard is the first time that my country has released a product standard for adhesives for food contact materials and products. The release of this standard fills the gap in the control of such materials in the market. It will be officially implemented on February 8, 2025.

01 Scope of application:
Suitable for adhesives for food contact materials and products.

02 Product Category:

a) Adhesives for direct contact with food: Adhesives used on the food contact surfaces of food contact materials and products that are expected to be in direct contact with food.
b) Adhesives for indirect contact with food: Adhesives used on non-food contact surfaces of food contact materials and products that are not expected to be in direct contact with food, but whose components may be transferred to food.

03 Basic requirements:

a) Meet the requirements of GB 4806.1;
b) Relevant manufacturing enterprises should control the safety risks of adhesive products through formula design, raw material selection, production process control, product information transmission, etc.;
c) Relevant users should control safety risks from adhesives through packaging design such as seams and edges, adding effective barrier layers, curing process control, product information transmission, etc.; the use and residual amounts of adhesives should be reduced as much as possible .

04 Technical and raw material requirements:

a) The use of basic raw materials for food contact adhesives should comply with the requirements of Appendix A, Appendix B and relevant announcements;
b) Adhesive additives for food contact comply with the requirements of GB 9685 and related announcements.

05 Sensory and general physical and chemical index requirements:

06 Labeling requirements

a) Label identification should comply with the provisions of GB 4806.1;
b) Adhesive products should indicate the product category (adhesives for direct contact with food, adhesives for indirect contact with food) on the label.

China promotes ROHS certification model

Mode 1: Type test + post-certification supervision [Applicable components and component products, material products]
Mode 2: Sampling test + post-certification supervision [Applicable parts and component products]
Mode 3: Optimization test + post-certification supervision [applicable to complete machine products and component products]
Mode 4: Sampling test + initial factory inspection + post-certification supervision [all products within the scope of applicable rules]

Applicable product range
The first batch of ROHS mandatory products (12 categories) promoted by the country: refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, electric water heaters, printers, copiers, fax machines, televisions, monitors (including monitors, display screens, etc.), microcomputers (including Desktop computers, notebooks, tablets and other PCs), mobile communication handsets, stand-alone telephones.
The national ROHS certificate covering 12 categories of products is valid for 5 years and requires regular supervision and spot inspections every year.