Korea MFDS Released 2017 Non-compliant Food Data and Upcoming 2018 Food Policies

On 16th of January, Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) released non-compliant imported food data for the year 2017. In the whole year, a total of 672,300 noncompliant items of food were detected. The detected irregularities are indicated in the following infographic.

Earlier, on 27th of December 2017, MFDS and Korea Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) jointly released the major food policies planned for 2018. We selected the provisions that may impact food imports and exports and arranged them in the following table.

Month	Food Policies
January	Marking of table and paragraph on the front-of-pack labeling and enlargement of the font size.
	Merging of food and livestock products regulatory standards.
	Beverages and fermented drinks stored at room temperature will be allowed to be sold after freezing.
	Oak chips will be allowed for flavor enhancing in fermented vinegar production and processing.
	Application of custom export support system to agricultural export enterprises.
	Amelioration of Standards and Management System of Food appraisal by celebrities.
February	Establishment of a national residue detection system (NRP) for aquatic products. Carrying out of government-level systematic supervision of detection methods of Antibiotics and other residues as well as scientific risk assessment for large consumption aquatic products.
March	Support for small and medium food enterprises in employing guarantee insurance to purchase domestic agricultural and livestock products.
June	Expansion of the scope of the mandatory traceability system for health/functional food. It will include all imported health/functional food with sales exceeding 100 million in 2016.
December	Mandatory application of Good Manufacturing Practices for health/functional Food;
December	Mandatory application of HACCP for Ham, sausage, hamburger patties and other processed meat varieties.