Blue Hat

The Blue Hat (small blue cap logo, 保健食品 — baojian shipin) is the China State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) mark for an approved Health Food. It is mandatory on the principal display panel of any supplement sold through general trade in mainland China — offline retail, pharmacies, supermarkets and the domestic Tmall/JD storefronts. The approval number under the cap takes one of several forms: 国食健字G (Registered, made in China), 国食健字J (Registered, imported), 国食健注G/J (Registration post-2016), or 国食健备G/J (Filing post-2016).

Since the 2016 dual-track reform, Blue Hat approval splits into Registration (注册) and Filing (备案). Registration is the heavy path — toxicology, functional testing (animal and/or human), stability and full SAMR technical review, typically 18 to 36 months — required for any new functional claim, any ingredient not on the SAMR Filing Catalogue, and any imported product whose function falls outside the Filing scope. Filing is the light path — target 60 working days — available only when every ingredient matches the Health Food Raw Material Catalogue at the allowed daily intake and every claim matches the Allowed Functional Claims Catalogue. Most vitamin and mineral nutrient supplements can take the Filing route; most botanicals and most functional claims cannot.

Cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) operates as a parallel channel that bypasses the Blue Hat entirely — products on the CBEC Positive List are sold via Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, Kaola and Douyin Global from bonded warehouses under personal-use import rules, with per-consumer caps. CBEC products cannot move to general trade without earning their Blue Hat. In V5 the Blue Hat number, the pathway (Registration vs Filing vs CBEC-only), the SAMR approved function wording and the GB-standard compliance evidence live on the SKU's China regulatory record, so a CBEC SKU and a general-trade Blue Hat SKU in the same product family are visibly two distinct compliance views on one product.