Chinese nutrition labels follow a standardized format that becomes easy to read once you learn a few key differences from Western labels. The biggest ones: energy is listed in kilojoules instead of calories, the mandatory nutrients are slightly different, and all values may be shown per 100 grams rather than per serving. Here’s how to decode each part of the label.
The Basic Layout
Every prepackaged food sold in China must display a nutrition facts table governed by the national standard GB 28050. The table is built around what regulators call “4+1”: four core nutrients plus energy. Those five mandatory items, in order, are:
- 能量 (néng liàng): Energy
- 蛋白质 (dàn bái zhì): Protein
- 脂肪 (zhī fáng): Fat
- 碳水化合物 (tàn shuǐ huà hé wù): Carbohydrate
- 钠 (nà): Sodium
These always appear in this exact order. Manufacturers can voluntarily add other nutrients below sodium, such as dietary fiber (膳食纤维), calcium (钙), iron (铁), or vitamins, but only the five above are required on every product.
Energy Is in Kilojoules, Not Calories
The most common stumbling block for English speakers is the energy row. Chinese labels use kilojoules (kJ), not the kilocalories (kcal) you see on American or European labels. To convert, divide the kilojoule number by 4.184. A snack listing 1,600 kJ per 100 grams, for example, contains about 382 calories per 100 grams.
The daily reference value for energy on Chinese labels is 8,400 kJ, which equals roughly 2,000 calories. That number is the same baseline used in the United States, so the percentages in the right-hand column still give you a useful sense of scale.
Per 100g, Per 100ml, or Per Serving
Chinese regulations allow manufacturers to express nutrition values per 100 grams, per 100 milliliters, or per serving. Most products use 100g or 100ml, which actually makes comparison shopping easier than serving-based labels because every product uses the same denominator. When a manufacturer chooses to use servings instead, the serving size (每份) and number of servings per package (每包含几份) will appear at the top of the table.
Check this line before reading anything else. If you assume the numbers are per 100g but they’re actually per 30g serving, you’ll dramatically underestimate what’s in the whole package.
What NRV% Means
The right-hand column of the nutrition table is labeled NRV%, which stands for Nutrient Reference Value percentage. It tells you what fraction of your recommended daily intake one unit of the food provides. The formula is straightforward: the nutrient amount in the food divided by the daily reference value, multiplied by 100.
China’s daily reference values for the core nutrients are:
- Energy: 8,400 kJ (about 2,000 kcal)
- Protein: 60 g
- Fat: 60 g
- Saturated fat: 20 g
- Carbohydrate: 300 g
- Sodium: 2,000 mg
These are close to, but not identical to, the reference values on U.S. labels. The protein and fat benchmarks are both 60g in China versus 50g for protein and 78g for fat on current U.S. labels. This means the NRV% for protein on a Chinese label will look slightly lower than the %DV on an American label for the same food, and the fat percentage will look slightly higher. Keep this in mind if you’re used to reading American packaging.
As a quick rule of thumb, an NRV% of 5% or less is low, and 20% or more is high. If a bag of chips shows sodium at 39% NRV per 100g, that single 100-gram portion supplies nearly two-fifths of your recommended daily sodium.
Key Chinese Characters to Recognize
You don’t need to read Chinese fluently to navigate a label. Recognizing a handful of characters covers most of what you’ll encounter:
- 营养成分表: Nutrition facts table (the header)
- 每份: Per serving
- 每100克: Per 100 grams
- 每100毫升: Per 100 milliliters
- 能量: Energy
- 蛋白质: Protein
- 脂肪: Fat
- 饱和脂肪(酸): Saturated fat
- 反式脂肪(酸): Trans fat
- 碳水化合物: Carbohydrate
- 糖: Sugar
- 膳食纤维: Dietary fiber
- 钠: Sodium
- 千焦: Kilojoules (kJ)
- 克: Grams (g)
- 毫克: Milligrams (mg)
The nutrition table header (营养成分表) is usually printed in a bordered box, making it visually distinct even before you read the characters.
Reading the Ingredient List
The ingredient list (配料表 or 配料) works the same way as in most countries: items are listed in descending order by weight. The first ingredient makes up the largest proportion of the product, and the last makes up the least. Food additives follow the same descending-order rule within their own grouping, and each must be listed by its official name as defined in China’s national food additive standards.
If you’re watching for added sugar, look for 白砂糖 (white sugar), 果葡糖浆 (high-fructose syrup), 麦芽糖 (maltose), or 蜂蜜 (honey) near the top of the list. The higher up any of these appear, the more sugar the product contains relative to other ingredients.
Allergen Information
Chinese labeling standards identify eight categories of allergenic foods that should be declared either within the ingredient list or in a separate statement near it:
- Gluten-containing grains (wheat, rye, barley)
- Crustaceans (shrimp, crab, lobster)
- Fish
- Eggs
- Peanuts
- Soybeans
- Milk and dairy (including lactose)
- Tree nuts
Allergen disclosure in China has historically been recommended rather than strictly enforced, so not every product highlights allergens as prominently as you might expect from U.S. or EU packaging. If you have a serious allergy, reading the full ingredient list (配料表) is more reliable than looking for a separate allergen callout box.
Putting It All Together
Here’s a practical walkthrough. Imagine you pick up a package of crackers and see this nutrition table:
项目 / 每100克 / NRV%
能量 / 1,800 kJ / 21%
蛋白质 / 8.0 g / 13%
脂肪 / 15.0 g / 25%
碳水化合物 / 68.0 g / 23%
钠 / 480 mg / 24%
First, check the unit: this is per 100 grams. The package weighs 200g, so eating the whole thing means doubling every number. Energy is 1,800 kJ per 100g. Divide by 4.184 to get about 430 calories per 100g, or 860 for the full package. Fat’s NRV is 25%, meaning 100g of these crackers delivers a quarter of your daily fat budget. Sodium sits at 24%, so the whole package would hit nearly half your daily sodium. At a glance, this is a high-fat, high-sodium snack, and the NRV% column told you that in seconds.
Once you’ve practiced this a few times, reading Chinese nutrition labels becomes almost as fast as reading labels in your own language. The structure is predictable, the mandatory nutrients are always in the same order, and the NRV% column does most of the interpretive work for you.