Baby Ledger AIYou are halfway through an H Mart run, holding a baby snack whose label is entirely in Korean. Or a relative just came back from Shanghai with treats for the baby, and every word on the package is in Chinese. Your child has a milk allergy. Now what?
This is the Chinese-and-Korean companion to our Japanese food labels guide. It covers how each country's allergen rules actually work (they are very different from each other), the exact characters and hangul to look for, and what to do when you cannot confirm what is inside.
One aisle, two very different rulebooks
Chinese and Korean products often sit side by side at an Asian grocery, but the labels behind them come from opposite ends of the regulatory spectrum:
- Korea runs one of the stricter allergen systems anywhere: 19 designated items, a dedicated allergen callout box near the ingredient list, and a required cross-contact statement in many cases.
- China's allergen labeling has historically been voluntary. A mandatory rule now exists on paper, but it does not take effect until March 2027 - so most mainland-China labels on shelves today carry no allergen callout at all.
- Neither country requires sesame to be called out - and sesame oil, sesame paste, and sesame seeds are everywhere in both cuisines. If sesame is on your child's list, the ingredient list is your only defense.
- Products imported through proper channels for US retail must carry an English label that declares the US major allergens. In practice, at smaller markets you will sometimes find a sticker that is loosely translated, incomplete, or missing - so it pays to be able to read the original.
How China labels allergens: voluntary today, mandatory in 2027
China's national food labeling standard is GB 7718, and its history explains why Chinese packages feel so inconsistent. Under the 2011 edition (GB 7718-2011), allergen labeling was only recommended - a manufacturer could flag allergens or skip it entirely, and many skipped it.
That changed on paper on March 27, 2025, when China published a full revision, GB 7718-2025. The new standard makes allergen labeling mandatory for eight categories: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, fish, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, milk, and tree nuts. Manufacturers must either emphasize those allergens inside the ingredient list (bold or similar) or add a callout statement right next to it. Precautionary "may contain" cross-contact labeling stays voluntary - the standard encourages it but does not require it.
The catch for parents: GB 7718-2025 does not take effect until March 16, 2027. Until then, a mainland-China label with no allergen warning tells you nothing. The absence of a callout is not the absence of an allergen - it may simply be a label made under the old voluntary rule. For any Chinese-market product you pick up in 2026, plan to read the ingredient list character by character.
How Korea labels allergens: 19 items and a callout box
Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) requires allergen labeling for 19 designated items: eggs (from poultry), milk, buckwheat, peanut, soybean, wheat, mackerel, crab, shrimp, pork, peach, tomato, sulfites (when the finished product contains 10 mg/kg or more of sulfur dioxide), walnut, chicken, beef, squid, shellfish (counted as one item that includes oyster, abalone, and mussel), and pine nut. Pine nut is the newest addition, added in 2020.
Korean labels make this list easy to find. The rules call for an allergen summary box near the ingredient list, set off with a contrasting background color, reading something like "계란, 우유, 대두 함유" - "contains egg, milk, soy." The word to lock into memory is 함유 (hamyu, "contains"). Korea also requires a facility cross-contact advisory when a product is made in the same facility as allergen-containing products - a statement like "이 제품은 ...를 사용한 제품과 같은 제조시설에서 제조하고 있습니다" ("this product is manufactured in the same facility as products that use ..."). For how to weigh statements like that, see our guide to "may contain" and hidden allergens.
Three mismatches with the US Big 9 worth knowing:
- Korea's list is broader in some places - pork, peach, tomato, squid, mackerel, buckwheat, sulfites, and mollusk shellfish are all mandatory callouts there but are not US major allergens (in the US, only crustacean shellfish like shrimp and crab make the Big 9).
- And narrower in others. Sesame is not on Korea's mandatory list, even though sesame oil (참기름) touches a huge share of Korean food. Among tree nuts, only walnut and pine nut are mandatory - almond and cashew are not, so they may appear only in the ingredient list without a callout.
- Buckwheat (메밀) gets flagged reliably in Korea, which helps if it is on your child's list - it shows up in noodle products like naengmyeon.
The characters and hangul to look for
First, find the ingredient list. On mainland Chinese labels the header is 配料 or 配料表 (pèiliào / pèiliàobiǎo). Products from Taiwan or Hong Kong usually print traditional characters and often head the list with 成分 or 成份 (chéngfèn) instead. On Korean labels the header is 원재료명 (wonjaeryomyeong, "raw material names"), with the allergen box nearby.
| Allergen | Chinese label forms (simplified / traditional) | Korean label forms |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 奶 / 牛奶 (nǎi / niúnǎi), 乳 (rǔ) | 우유 (uyu); 분유 = milk powder |
| Egg | 蛋 / 鸡蛋, trad. 雞蛋 (jīdàn) | 계란 (gyeran) / 달걀 (dalgyal) / 난류 |
| Peanut | 花生 (huāshēng) | 땅콩 (ttangkong) |
| Tree nuts | 坚果, trad. 堅果 (jiānguǒ); 核桃 = walnut; 杏仁 = almond; 腰果 = cashew | 견과류 (gyeongwaryu); 호두 = walnut; 잣 = pine nut; 아몬드 = almond |
| Fish | 鱼, trad. 魚 (yú) | 생선 / 어류; 고등어 = mackerel |
| Shrimp | 虾, trad. 蝦 (xiā) | 새우 (saeu) |
| Crab | 蟹 / 螃蟹 (xiè) | 게 (ge) |
| Wheat | 小麦, trad. 小麥 (xiǎomài); 面粉 = flour | 밀 (mil); 밀가루 = flour |
| Soy | 大豆 / 黄豆 (dàdòu) | 대두 (daedu) / 콩 (kong) |
| Sesame | 芝麻 (zhīma); 芝麻酱 = sesame paste | 참깨 (chamkkae); 참기름 = sesame oil |
A few notes that matter at the shelf:
- Simplified vs. traditional. Mainland China uses simplified characters (小麦, 虾, 鱼); Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional forms (小麥, 蝦, 魚). The pairs look related but not identical, so scan for both versions of your child's allergen.
- Soy and sesame hide in condiments. On Chinese labels, 酱油 (trad. 醬油, soy sauce) means soy, and 香油 or 麻油 (sesame oil) means sesame. On Korean labels, 간장 (soy sauce) means soy, and 참기름 means sesame. One trap in reverse: 들기름 is perilla oil, a different plant from sesame despite the similar role in the kitchen.
- Milk hides in processed forms. Watch 奶粉 (milk powder), 奶油 (cream), and 乳清 (whey) on Chinese labels; 탈지분유 (skim milk powder), 유청 (whey), and the loanwords 버터 (butter) and 치즈 (cheese) on Korean ones.
The same four-step method applies
The routine we walk through in our foreign food labels hub guide works exactly the same here:
- Find the ingredient header - 配料 or 成分 on Chinese labels, 원재료명 on Korean ones - and check for a 함유 callout box on Korean packages.
- Scan for your child's allergen characters from the table above, in both simplified and traditional forms on Chinese products.
- Back it up with your phone camera's live translation and the manufacturer's website. Translation on stylized packaging is a clue, not a verdict.
- When you cannot confirm, do not feed it. An unread label is an unknown, and unknown is not safe.
When the database has nothing
Imported Chinese and Korean products are exactly where barcode lookups go quiet - a snack sold mainly through Asian groceries often has no entry in the big open product databases, and a blank result can read like "safe" when it really means "no data." The AllerSee™ scanner built into Baby Ledger AI is designed around that gap: it reads ingredient labels in English plus five additional writing systems (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Cyrillic, and German) and cross-checks what it reads against the allergen profile you build for your child (the app interface is in English). When the database has nothing, it does not quietly return "no allergens found" - it gets more cautious and tells you to take a closer look, because an empty record is a reason to look harder, not a green light. It is an awareness and label-reading aid, not a medical device; false negatives are possible, and it does not replace reading the full label yourself. The safety layer - allergen cross-check, barcode scan, and FDA recall check - is free and unlimited on every plan; AI photo scans and Saurus questions are daily-capped because each one costs real money to run. See how the AllerSee scanner reads imported labels →
Frequently asked questions
Do Chinese food labels have allergen warnings?
Often not yet. Allergen labeling was voluntary under China's GB 7718-2011 standard, and the revision that makes it mandatory (GB 7718-2025, covering eight allergen categories) does not take effect until March 16, 2027. Until then, treat a missing warning as missing information, not as an all-clear, and read the full ingredient list.
Which allergens are mandatory on Korean labels?
Korea's MFDS requires 19 designated items: eggs (poultry), milk, buckwheat, peanut, soybean, wheat, mackerel, crab, shrimp, pork, peach, tomato, sulfites (at 10 mg/kg or more of sulfur dioxide in the finished product), walnut, chicken, beef, squid, shellfish (including oyster, abalone, and mussel), and pine nut.
Is sesame labeled on Chinese and Korean products?
Not reliably. Sesame is not on China's eight mandatory categories or Korea's 19-item list, even though it became the 9th US major allergen on January 1, 2023 under the FASTER Act. Look for 芝麻 (Chinese) and 참깨 or 참기름 (Korean) in the ingredient list yourself.
What does 함유 mean on a Korean label?
함유 (hamyu) means "contains." Korean packages list allergens in a callout box near the ingredient list, usually with a contrasting background, in the form "계란, 우유 함유" - "contains egg, milk." It is the single most useful word to memorize for Korean labels.
How do I say peanut on a Chinese or Korean label?
Peanut is 花生 (huāshēng) on Chinese labels and 땅콩 (ttangkong) on Korean ones. On a Korean package, also check the allergen callout box, where peanut must be declared if it is an ingredient.
I bought a baby snack at H Mart with an English sticker. Can I trust the sticker?
Read both. Imports for US retail are supposed to carry English labeling that declares the US major allergens, but stickers on specialty imports are sometimes abbreviated or loosely translated. If the sticker and the original label seem to disagree, go with the more cautious reading, check the manufacturer's website, or skip the product.