Overview
GB 2762-2012 was China’s National Food Safety Standard for maximum levels of contaminants in foods. The Ministry of Health announced the standard on 13 November 2012; it took effect on 1 June 2013 and was replaced by GB 2762-2017 on 17 September 2017.
Scope
The standard set food-specific maximum levels for chemical contaminants in foods. The official NHC policy interpretation describes the 2012 revision as covering more than 20 food categories and more than 160 contaminant-limit entries, including lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, tin, nickel, chromium, nitrite, nitrate, benzo[a]pyrene, N-dimethylnitrosamine, polychlorinated biphenyls, and 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol.
Selected limits cited by source pages
| Matrix context | Analyte | Maximum level | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foodstuffs cited by Liang et al. 2019 | Pb | 0.2 mg/kg | Source-cited comparator from GB 2762-2012 |
| Foodstuffs cited by Liang et al. 2019 | tHg | 0.02 mg/kg | Source-cited comparator from GB 2762-2012 |
This page is an omnibus routing anchor for source pages that cite GB 2762-2012. It does not reproduce the full legal schedule.
How this page interacts with HMT&C
This page records the Chinese regulatory comparator used by pre-2017 literature. It does not set or justify HMT&C certification thresholds. Current China-market comparisons should use the active GB 2762 framework, not this superseded version, unless a source specifically cites the 2012 standard.
Sources
- National Health Commission. Announcement No. 21 of 2012 issuing GB 2762-2012. Source URL: https://www.nhc.gov.cn/sps/c100088/201301/999e3ffd3984444eb70bbf908b1871c9.shtml
- National Health Commission. Q&A on GB 2762-2012, published 5 June 2013, stating the standard was issued on 13 November 2012 and came into force on 1 June 2013. Source URL: https://www.nhc.gov.cn/zwgk/zswd/201306/6833e7c948da4aaa961f24fe9da24d1b.shtml
- Analysis of Heavy Metals in Foodstuffs and an Assessment of the Health Risks to the General Public via Consumption in Beijing, China cites GB 2762-2012 as the comparator for Pb and Hg exceedance discussion in Beijing foodstuffs.
Verification notes
- Created 2026-05-18 during the Liang et al. 2019 merge-enhance because the source cited GB 2762-2012 and the previous source page linked to a nonexistent generic China GB 2762 page.
- The selected Pb and Hg rows are source-cited comparators from Liang et al. 2019, not a full extraction of GB 2762-2012.
Update history
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