On February 28, 2023, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) announced a new differential registration scheme (해외제조업소 차등 등록제) for foreign food facilities manufacturing foods with potential risks on a trial basis.1 The new scheme aims to intensify the safety control of imported foods.
The health functional food is designated as the first batch of food category subject to the new registration scheme. The trial period will be from April 1 to October 31. The authority plans to compulsorily implement the differential registration to facilities of health functional food facility in 2024, to facilities of processed agricultural food and seasoning foods in 2025.
The importers of health functional foods will be required to submit safety certificates such as HACCP, GMP, ISO22000, GFSI, etc., when registering the foreign food facilities. For those who register facilities without certificates, MFDS will conduct on-site inspections on foreign food facilities in the following year. The flow chat to indicate the new registration scheme is as below:
The new differential registration scheme is a significant step toward ensuring the safety of imported foods in South Korea. The MFDS hopes that the scheme will enable better safety control measures for imported food and improve public health outcomes in the country. According to the Korean authority, they plan to expand the scope of overseas factories of imported food subject to the new scheme in the future. MFDS also published a guideline2 on the new differential registration scheme for enterprises’ reference (Korean only). ChemLinked will publish an analysis of the new scheme based on the guideline and provide more follow-up information. Please stay tuned.
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