GB 46817-2025Discharge standard of water pollutants for food processing and manufacturing industry (English PDF)

Foreword

This document was issued on 31 October 2025 by the the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China and takes effect on 1 May 2026.

It is a GB standard without the /T suffix: compliance is mandatory in China.

The document runs to 15 pages in translation. The identification, the dates, the table of contents and the clauses reproduced on this page are taken from the standard itself.

GB 46817-2025 Discharge standard of water pollutants for food processing and manufacturing industry English, Anglais, Englisch, Inglés, えいご

Discharge standard of water pollutants for food processing and manufacturing industry

1 Scope

GB 46817-2025 is the Chinese discharge standard for water pollutants from the food processing and manufacturing industry. It is a new standard, effective 1 May 2026, and it covers an industry that until now was regulated piecemeal: it applies to existing pollutant discharging units and production facilities in food processing and manufacturing, to the environmental impact assessment, the environmental protection facility design and the completion acceptance of new projects, and to the centralised wastewater treatment facilities that serve the sector. The document sets the water pollutant discharge control requirements, the monitoring requirements, the specifications for the discharge outlet itself, and the rules for implementation and supervision. Food factories discharge high organic loads, and the standard is what a local environmental bureau uses to decide whether a plant may operate. For a food manufacturer with a plant in China, or for anyone designing or financing one, this is the text the discharge permit is written from.

This standard specifies the control requirements, monitoring requirements, and supervision and management requirements for water pollutant discharge from the food processing and manufacturing industry.

This standard applies to the management of water pollutant discharge from existing pollutant discharging units and production facilities in the food processing and manufacturing industry, as well as to the environmental impact assessment of construction projects in the food processing and manufacturing industry, the design of environmental protection facilities, the acceptance of completed environmental protection facilities, the issuance of pollutant discharge permits, and the management of water pollutant discharge after these projects are put into operation.

This standard also applies to the management of water pollutant discharge from centralized wastewater treatment facilities serving the food processing and manufacturing industry.

The water pollutant discharge control requirements specified in this standard apply to the direct or indirect discharge of water pollutants outside the legal boundaries by pollutant discharging units, production facilities, and centralized wastewater treatment facilities in the food processing and manufacturing industry.

2 Normative References

The following documents, or the clauses cited therein, are referenced in this standard. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including all amendments) applies. If other documents are superseded, modified, or revised by new ones, the new documents apply.

GB 2718-2014 National Food Safety Standard — Fermented Soybean Paste

GB 15562.1 Environmental Protection Graphic Signs — Discharge Outlet (Source)

GB/T 4754-2017 Industrial Classification for National Economic Activities

GB/T 11893 Water Quality — Determination of Total Phosphorus — Ammonium Molybdate Spectrophotometric Method

GB/T 11901 Water Quality — Determination of Suspended Solids — Gravimetric Method

HJ 51 Water Quality — Determination of Total Dissolved Solids — Gravimetric Method

HJ/T 70 High Chlorine Wastewater — Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand — Chlorine Emendation Method

HJ/T 399 Water Quality — Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand — Rapid Digestion Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 493 Water Quality — Technical Regulations on Sample Preservation and Management

HJ 494 Water Quality — Guidance on Sampling Techniques

HJ 495 Water Quality — Technical Regulations on Sampling Program Design

HJ 505 Water Quality — Determination of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) after 5 Days — Dilution and Inoculation Method

HJ 535 Water Quality — Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen — Nessler's Reagent Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 536 Water Quality — Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen — Salicylic Acid Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 537 Water Quality — Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen — Distillation-Neutralization Titration Method

HJ 636 Water Quality — Determination of Total Nitrogen — Alkaline Potassium Persulfate Digestion UV Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 637 Water Quality — Determination of Petroleum Oils and Animal and Vegetable Oils — Infrared Spectrophotometry

HJ 665 Water Quality — Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen — Continuous Flow-Salicylic Acid Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 666 Water Quality — Determination of Ammonia Nitrogen — Flow Injection-Salicylic Acid Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 667 Water Quality — Determination of Total Nitrogen — Continuous Flow-Hydrochloric Naphthylethylenediamine Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 668 Water Quality — Determination of Total Nitrogen — Flow Injection-Hydrochloric Naphthylethylenediamine Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 670 Water Quality — Determination of Phosphate and Total Phosphorus — Continuous Flow-Ammonium Molybdate Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 671 Water Quality — Determination of Total Phosphorus — Flow Injection-Ammonium Molybdate Spectrophotometric Method

HJ 828 Water Quality — Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand — Dichromate Method

HJ 986 Technical Guideline for Self-Monitoring of Pollutant Discharging Units — Agricultural and Sideline Food Processing Industry

HJ 1147 Water Quality — Determination of pH Value — Electrode Method

HJ 1182 Water Quality — Determination of Colority — Dilution Multiple Method

HJ 1297 Technical Specification for QR Code Labeling of Pollutant Discharge Outlets of Pollutant Discharging Units

HJ 1405 Technical Specification for Monitoring Point Setting at Pollutant Discharge Outlets of Pollutant Discharging Units

Notice on the Technical Specifications for Discharge Outlet Signboards (环办〔2003〕95号)

3 Terms and Definitions

For the purposes of this standard, the following terms and definitions apply.

3.1

food processing and manufacturing industry

The industry involved in directly processing raw products from agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, such as grain milling, feed processing, vegetable oil and sugar processing, slaughtering and meat processing, aquatic product processing, processing of vegetables, fruits and nuts, etc., or processing raw materials through physical, chemical, or biotechnological means to produce finished or semi-finished products for human consumption or drinking.

In this standard, it refers to the industries listed in GB/T 4754-2017: Grain Milling (C131), Feed Processing (C132), Vegetable Oil Processing (C133), Aquatic Product Processing (C136), Processing of Vegetables, Mushrooms, Fruits and Nuts (C137), Bean Product Manufacturing (C139, specifically C1392), Bakery Product Manufacturing (C141), Confectionery, Chocolate and Preserved Fruit Manufacturing (C142), Convenience Food Manufacturing (C143), Dairy Product Manufacturing (C144), Canned Food Manufacturing (C145), Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Fermented Soybean Paste Manufacturing and Tomato Product Manufacturing (C146, specifically C1462 and part of C1469), as well as Nutraceutical Food Manufacturing, Health Food Manufacturing, Frozen Beverage and Edible Ice Manufacturing (C149, specifically C1491, C1492, C1493).

Herein, tomato products include tomato paste, tomato juice, tomato sauce (i.e., tomato condiment sauce), tomato dices, tomato powder and other products primarily processed from tomatoes or tomato paste, as well as canned tomatoes, canned tomato paste, and canned tomato sauce. Fermented soybean paste refers to semi-solid condiments produced primarily from grains and/or legumes through microbial fermentation as stipulated in GB 2718-2014, such as wheat paste, soybean paste, and broad bean paste.

3.2

centralized wastewater treatment facilities

Wastewater treatment facilities that provide wastewater treatment services for two or more pollutant discharging units, including urban centralized wastewater treatment facilities of various scales and types, wastewater treatment facilities in industrial clusters (such as economic and technological development zones, high-tech industrial development zones, export processing zones, and other industrial parks), and other wastewater treatment facilities shared by two or more pollutant discharging units.

3.3

centralized wastewater treatment facilities for food processing and manufacturing industry

Centralized wastewater treatment facilities specifically providing wastewater treatment services for two or more pollutant discharging units in the food processing and manufacturing industry.

3.4

existing pollutant discharging unit

Pollutant discharging units and production facilities in the food processing and manufacturing industry that were built and put into operation before the date of implementation of this standard, or for which the environmental impact assessment document has been approved, as well as centralized wastewater treatment facilities for the food processing and manufacturing industry.

3.5

new pollutant discharging unit

Construction projects for the food processing and manufacturing industry or centralized wastewater treatment facilities for the food processing and manufacturing industry that are newly built, reconstructed, or expanded, for which the environmental impact assessment document is approved on or after the date of implementation of this standard.

3.6

direct discharge

The act of a pollutant discharging unit discharging water pollutants directly into environmental water bodies.

3.7

indirect discharge

The act of a pollutant discharging unit discharging water pollutants into centralized wastewater treatment facilities.

3.8

effluent volume

The volume of wastewater discharged by a pollutant discharging unit or production facility beyond its legal boundaries, including various types of discharged wastewater directly or indirectly related to production (such as process wastewater, domestic wastewater from production areas within the plant, cooling wastewater, boiler and power station drainage within the plant, etc., excluding once-through cooling water and domestic wastewater from residential areas for plant employees within the plant).

3.9

benchmark effluent volume per unit product

The upper limit of effluent volume per unit product produced, stipulated for the purpose of verifying water pollutant discharge concentrations.

4 Water Pollutant Discharge Control Requirements

4.1 New pollutant discharging units shall comply with the water pollutant discharge limits and other pollution control requirements specified in Table 1 from January 1, 2026. Existing pollutant discharging units shall comply from January 1, 2028.

4.2 For indirect discharge scenarios, under the premise of not causing pipeline corrosion, sedimentation, or blockage, and provided that the influent of the centralized wastewater treatment facility meets the design treatment capacity and ensures compliant discharge, the pollutant discharging unit and the operator of the centralized wastewater treatment facility may negotiate and agree upon a concentration limit for a specific water pollutant. If this limit is verified and legally entered into the pollutant discharge permit or recorded in the pollutant discharge registration form filled out on the National Pollutant Discharge Permit Management Information Platform, then this limit shall serve as the indirect discharge limit.

Table 1 Water Pollutant Discharge Limits