The newly revised "restrictions on excessive packaging requirements for food and cosmetics" (hereinafter referred to as the new national standard) came into effect on September 1, which means that there are new restrictions on the packaging of food and cosmetics, including tea.

The reporter learned that since April this year, various localities have continuously promoted the special treatment of excessive packaging of tea, and the industry's attention to the problem of excessive packaging has rapidly increased. After the tea packaging was "lightly loaded", the "burden" of tea enterprises has been reduced, and consumers are more affordable.

　　Saying "no" to excessive packaging of tea"

In the actual sales process of tea products, many businesses often use their brains on tea packaging in order to "create greater economic value", and the resulting excessive packaging problem once became a norm. According to a survey report released by the China Consumer Association in March this year, more than 80% of consumers oppose excessive packaging.

"Many consumers spend about 150 yuan to buy tea, and some tea packaging costs 100 yuan." Xu Rongbing, head of Hangzhou Yuhang Tianlong Tea Co., Ltd., said frankly that some consumers buy tea for gifts, believing that the more exquisite the gift box packaging, the more decent the gift.

In view of the problem of excessive packaging, the new national standard has made clear provisions on the number of packaging layers, packaging cost and porosity of 31 kinds of food and 16 kinds of cosmetics, including tea.

"According to the new standard, tea packaging cannot exceed four layers, and the packaging cost is less than or equal to 20% of the overall selling price." Yu Jie, chief of the quality inspection team of Hangzhou Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, said that the standard also specified the void ratio of the package in detail according to the net content of a single item in the package. "For example, if the net content of a can of tea is greater than 50 grams, the porosity of the box should be less than or equal to 30% if the can of tea is packed in a box."

At the same time, the National Standard No. 2 Amendment to "Restricting Excessive Packaging of Commodities for Food and Cosmetics" is being solicited for public opinions. Its contents include "the number of packaging layers is reduced from no more than four to no more than three" and "the proportion of packaging costs to sales prices is reduced from 20% to 15%". These adjustments have been subject to rigorous market research and demonstration.

"The mainstream packaging of tea products on the market is two-layer and three-layer packaging. The three-layer packaging can fully meet the necessary functional requirements of tea protection, display, storage, and transportation." Wei Hong, deputy director of the Standards and Technology Management Department of the General Administration of Market Supervision, said that the survey found that nearly 90% of the product packaging costs were less than 15% of the total cost, and the average packaging cost accounted for 7.9, so there was room for further reduction in packaging costs.

Since April this year, many investigations have been carried out. So far, Zhejiang has dispatched 23000 law enforcement officers, seized 15900 illegal packages and corrected 548 problems such as excessive tea packaging. Fujian interviewed local e-commerce companies 22 times and issued 155 rectification notices. Sichuan has carried out law enforcement 2705 times, issued 4748 public service advertisements against excessive packaging, and signed 1715 letters of commitment by enterprises.

"China is a big tea country, planting scale, total output, consumption are ranked first in the world. The industry has nearly 1.55 million kinds of tea production and operation of the main body." Shen Weiwei, deputy supervisor of the China Tea Circulation Association, said that since the launch of the special treatment of excessive packaging of tea, the industry has paid more attention to the problem of excessive packaging, and enterprises have taken the initiative to speed up rectification.

　　Packaging "slimming" what new changes

What new changes will the implementation of the new national standard for packaging "slimming" bring to the industry, consumers, and regulatory authorities?

-Tea packaging is "light". Jiangnan tea market is the largest tea distribution base in Hangzhou, where tea buyers come in an endless stream every day. Reporters walked into the market a few days ago and saw that the shops on the first floor were filled with various kinds of packaged tea, mostly in bulk, paper, tin and gift boxes, with the number of packaging layers within three. Open a tea product called "Old Tree Longjing Gift Box". A book-sized paper gift box contains two cans of tin tea. According to the local market supervision department, this product meets the requirements of the new national standard.

-- The "burden" of enterprises is smaller and consumers are more affordable. Chen Ruihong, head of a tea enterprise, believes that the regulation of excessive packaging is of great benefit to the high-quality development of the industry. This allows companies to return their attention to the quality of the tea itself, rather than using packaging to attract consumers and form healthy competition. "We will now incorporate more Chinese elements into the tea packaging to make the packaging more cultural."

Liao Changyou, head of Jiangnan tea market, said that taking Jingshan tea in Yuhang, Hangzhou as an example, the packaging cost used to be 50-60 yuan, but now it only costs about 20 yuan. After the packaging price drops, the product price will also drop.

-- Online and offline joint efforts, supervision to improve efficiency. In view of the characteristics of many e-commerce platforms and active tea trading, Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau has focused on interviewing platform enterprises such as Jingdong, Meituan and Douyin to guide enterprises to strengthen internal audit of commodity packaging. Relying on the platform economy digital supervision system "Zhejiang Fair Online", Zhejiang Market Supervision and Administration Bureau has established an "online monitoring model for excessive tea packaging" to monitor 30 e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, Jingdong and Pinduo, covering 13000 online stores and 163000 commodity information.

　　Let the packaging "simple wind" fall on the ground

Excessive packaging of tea is easy to cause waste of resources and environmental pollution. Many tea gift boxes are difficult to use twice, and they are often easily discarded as domestic waste. The implementation of the new national standard will make low-carbon environmental protection deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Interviewees believe that the packaging "simple style" is not a gust of wind, but a multi-pronged approach to prevent the problem from rebounding.

Wei Saiming, chairman of the Technical Committee of China Tea Co., Ltd., believes that the new national standard plays a very important guiding role in standardizing and leading the healthy development of the tea industry, building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, and accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation.

The reporter learned that Zhejiang issued the "Guidelines for the Operation of the Prohibited Catalogue of Tea Over-packaging Network in the Province" to urge the e-commerce platform to strengthen the packaging compliance audit of operators in the platform. For example, Taobao and Tmall have dynamically monitored and evaluated online commodity compliance and merchant rectification effects, and banned 39 over-packaged tea products.

In the view of Fan Ziwei, vice minister of the quality standards department of the China Packaging Federation, packaging innovation is also very important. The Federation uses platforms such as packaging industry science and technology awards and R & D centers to promote packaging companies to use renewable materials, degradable materials, and recyclable materials to develop more environmentally friendly packaging methods.

However, there are still some regulatory difficulties in over-packaging of tea. Some consumers will purchase tea gift boxes with "exquisite" packaging through workshops and farmers, and regard the packaging as "face". The consumption concept has not been completely changed. In order to avoid supervision, some tea operators carry out online transactions through live broadcast with goods, micro-commerce and other forms, with strong concealment.

Market supervision departments in Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui, Sichuan and other places said that in the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, they will make work arrangements for law enforcement inspection before and during the festival in advance, pay close attention to circulation links, strictly manage commodity packaging, strengthen administrative law enforcement, and continue to consolidate governance achievements.