Let me state the conclusion first: if your household is currently price-shopping for whole-house customization, or is planning to place an order during the September–October renovation peak season, one rule has already changed—starting June 1, the mandatory new national standard GB 18580-2025 was officially implemented, and the formaldehyde emission limit for wood-based panel products used directly indoors has been made mandatory at E0 grade (≤0.050mg/m³).People's Daily OnlineIn other words, E0 is now merely an “admission ticket,” not a selling point. Meanwhile, quite a few store sales scripts are still stuck on the old version of “We’re E1 grade, we meet the national standard.”
This article makes three things clear: what exactly the new national standard changed, which three marketing sales pitches should be exposed on the spot, and whether paying extra for ENF is worth it. Finally, we’ll also hand you a checklist you can take straight to the store.
The most easily confused point in the new national standard: boards and products have two separate lines
Many people get confused reading explainer articles, because they fail to grasp the most fundamental change in this new national standard—it’s the first time “wood-based panels” and “wood-based panel products” have been split into two separate mandatory lines: basic boards such as plywood and particleboard must meet the E1 grade standard, with formaldehyde emissions not exceeding 0.124mg/m³; while wood-based panel products used directly indoors, such as flooring, wooden doors, and finished cabinets, are mandatorily required to reach E0 grade, with formaldehyde emissions lowered to 0.05mg/m³.China Economic Net
And what whole-house customization sells you is precisely the “products”—decorative finished cabinets. So the criterion for judgment is just one: E0 is the starting point.
This also explains a common scene: when the carpenter tells you “the boards I’m using are E1, they meet the national standard,” that statement is only half right—E1 is the line for the base material, not the line for the finished product. When you hear “E1 compliant” at a whole-house customization store, either the other party’s sales script hasn’t been updated, or they’re trying to pass off the base-material standard for the finished-product price.
As a side note, this E0 line in the new national standard is on the strict side internationally: the EU’s EN standard only has E1 and the even wider E2, and the ISO standard only has E1, with no mandatory E0 at all.People's Daily OnlineSo “meeting the new national standard E0” itself is not a low bar.
Three high-frequency sales pitches, exposed on the spot
First pitch: “We’re E0 grade.”—Follow up with one question: what’s the execution standard number? The People’s Daily Online explainer specifically warns: check whether the packaging or inspection report has “GB 18580-2025” plus the corresponding grade, and be wary of products that only say “E0 grade” or “E1 grade” without a standard number.People's Daily OnlineAn “E0” without a standard number could be a self-declared grade from the old-standard era, or it could be an enterprise standard the merchant defined themselves—the reliability is entirely different.
Second pitch: “ENF is the safest, E0 isn’t enough.”—ENF grade is indeed one level stricter than E0, but it’s not included in the mandatory new national standard; what includes it is the recommended national standard GB/T 39600-2021—and it is precisely this standard that sets a stricter ENF grade (not exceeding 0.025 mg/m³) on top of the E0 grade.People's Daily OnlineIn other words, a merchant selling E0 is fully legal and compliant, and selling ENF is a bonus item. Turning a bonus item into “if you don’t buy it, it’s unsafe” is manufacturing anxiety to inflate the customer’s unit price. Whether the extra money is worth it—we’ll discuss that separately below.
Third pitch: “We’re zero-formaldehyde.”—At the end of March this year, the China National Forest Products Industry Association, together with more than 30 leading companies including Wanhua Hexiang, Qiannianzhou, Moganshan, and Tubao, issued an industry declaration, one of whose commitments was to abandon false marketing such as “zero formaldehyde,” honestly label the environmental grade, and give up low-price internal competition.China Economic NetThe wood itself contains trace amounts of formaldehyde; “no-formaldehyde-added” refers to the adhesive not containing formaldehyde (e.g., isocyanate adhesives), and does not mean the finished product is zero-formaldehyde. Hearing the words “zero formaldehyde,” you can basically downgrade the overall reliability of that store’s environmental sales pitch.
One more reminder: the “F★★★★” often mentioned in stores is a Japanese JAS standard; Japan’s JAS certification formaldehyde emission limits are divided into 4 grades: F★ (≤5mg/L), F★★ (≤1.5mg/L), F★★★ (≤0.5mg/L), and F★★★★ (≤0.3mg/L), measured by the desiccator method, which is not the same measurement system as the new national standard’s climate chamber method mg/m³, so you can’t directly compare the numbers.China Economic NetWhen signing contracts, accepting delivery, or seeking remedies domestically, what’s recognized is the GB standard written in the contract.
Is paying extra for ENF really an IQ tax?
This question is fiercely debated on Xiaohongshu, but in reality it doesn’t depend on “whether there’s an upper limit to environmental protection,” but on your household’s specific conditions. Let me give you a framework for judgment:
Cases where paying extra for ENF is recommended: sensitive scenarios such as children’s rooms, pregnant households, and elderly rooms; rooms with poor ventilation conditions; cases where a single room has an especially large amount of cabinet use (e.g., a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe covering an entire wall plus a tatami—the total amount of boards is large, and the cumulative emission goes up).
Cases where E0 is enough: when the whole house has normal ventilation, conventional cabinet usage, and the budget itself is tight. E0 is already among the stricter mandatory lines internationally, and spending the limited budget on hardware, edge banding, and installation—the steps that are more prone to failure—might be more cost-effective than going all-in on ENF.
There’s also a compromise option: use ENF for sensitive rooms and E0 for other spaces, and clearly write the grades per room in the contract. Many merchants support mixed configurations—the key is to write it clearly; don’t accept “we’ll give you the best of everything verbally.”
A checklist to take to the store
When asking for a price, get clear answers to these five things. First, ask whether the inspection report is executed under GB 18580-2025, and whether the product grade is E0 or ENF. Second, ask whether the report was issued by a CMA institution—consumers can request that the merchant provide an inspection report issued by a testing institution with China qualification accreditation (CMA), and the testing method should be “GB 18580—2025 (1 cubic meter climate chamber method).”People's Daily OnlineThird, ask whether the board base-material brand and the finished-product grade are labeled separately (base material has one line, product has another line—if they’re reported mixed together, ask one more question). Fourth, ask about the cabinet’s production date—June 1 is the dividing line; at that time, products that don’t meet the mandatory new national standard cannot be used for interior decoration, and their continued production and sale are prohibited. If you encounter “clearance stock” at abnormally low prices, first ask clearly what date it was produced and under which standard.China Economic NetFifth, ask about the pricing method and the criteria for add-on charges—a detailed article on conversion methods and the add-on-charge checklist has been written before, so here I’ll just leave one reminder: after finishing the environmental-grade discussion, don’t forget to lock in the pricing method as well, and write both into the contract.
The contract should at least contain three clauses: the board’s execution standard number plus grade (e.g., “GB 18580-2025, E0 grade”), the acceptance criteria (it can be agreed that re-inspection by a CMA institution shall prevail), and liability for breach if the environmental grade doesn’t match. Verbal promises don’t count at all.
Finally, let me add one precedent that just came out today: a homeowner in Zhuzhou, Hunan, over a whole-house customization dispute, posted several dozen “pitfall-avoidance” videos online with words like “black-hearted merchant” and “shell company”; although the merchant had indeed already mediated and refunded, the court, after trial, held that Xiaoyun’s actions constituted infringement of the right of reputation, and ordered deletion of the posts, an apology, and compensation.WeiboThe point is: for remedies, take the paths of 12315, complaints to market supervision, and claiming compensation per the contract; keep the evidence safe, but don’t go online cursing with insulting vocabulary—if emotions win, the lawsuit might lose.
Signals worth continuing to watch going forward: the intensity of market-supervision inspections and enforcement of the new national standard in various regions during the September–October peak season, and whether package prices will loosen after E0 is fully rolled out. If your household is currently price-shopping, feel free to post the standard number and grade quoted by the store in the comments section, and let’s see together whether the sales pitch matches up.
