On 12 March 2024, the official website of the National Health Commission officially released GB 4806.15-2024, the National Food Safety Standard for Adhesives Used in Food Contact Materials and Articles (hereinafter the Standard), which will officially take effect on 8 February 2025.

Adhesives are very widely used in food contact materials and articles, but issues such as the migration into food of components from adhesives, or from adhesives used between layers of composite materials, can create food safety risks. The release of this national standard is an important step in improving China's food safety standards system and provides a regulatory basis for the compliance of adhesives used in food contact materials and articles.

The main control requirements of GB 4806.15-2024 for food contact adhesives are as follows:

1. Definition and classification of adhesives

Materials in food contact materials and articles that create a bonded joint by physical or chemical means and that come into direct or indirect contact with food.

Depending on whether they come into direct contact with food, they are classified as adhesives for direct food contact and adhesives for indirect food contact.

2. Technical requirements for adhesives

(1) Raw material requirements

· The use of base raw materials for adhesives for direct food contact shall comply with the requirements of Appendix A and the relevant announcements. The use of base raw materials for adhesives for indirect food contact shall comply with the requirements of Appendix A, Appendix B and the relevant announcements.

· Additive requirements: shall comply with GB 9685 and the relevant announcements.

(2) Sensory requirements

(applicable only to adhesive layers for direct food contact)

· Sensory properties of the product itself and of the soaking solution.

(3) Physicochemical indices

· General physicochemical indices: overall migration, consumption of potassium permanganate, heavy metals (as Pb) and total migration of primary aromatic amines.

3. Other provisions

As with other product standards, migration tests shall be carried out in accordance with GB 31604.1 and GB 5009.156, except where this Standard provides otherwise.

In addition to complying with GB 4806.1, the label of adhesive products shall also indicate the product category (adhesive for direct or indirect food contact).