Korea MFDS preannounced the revised Standards and Specifications of Health Functional Food on December 27, 2013. It aims to identify the applicable scope of Standards and Specifications of Health Functional Food for better understanding and application. Meanwhile, it adds new types of health functional food raw materials to promote the development of health functional food industry. The period of public consultation is until January 27, 2014.
In Korea, health functional food raw materials are divided into publically certified raw materials and individually certified raw materials. Publically certified raw materials refer to the raw materials that are approved by MFDS and can be used by anybody. There are 83 publicized raw materials, including omega-3, vitamin, glucosamine, lutein, etc. Individually certified raw materials refer to the raw materials that can only be used by the individuals applying for the certification with the approval of the MFDS. The announcement adds the content of raw material functionality for individually certified standards and specifications, and revises the content of functionality of publically certified raw materials as well as relevant stipulations on certification, including the raw materials of green tea extract, phosphatidylserine and chitooligosaccharide.
The announcement identifies the applicable objects of the Standards and Specifications of Health Functional Food. For the standards and specifications of the materials like impotence therapeutic agents, capsules should be included into the experimental subjects. Furthermore, if the nutrient intake targets are specified, the applicable standards should be made according to the recommended intakes and suitable intakes written in the Korean nutrient intake standard. Meanwhile, standards and specifications of hyaluronic acid, rhodiolarosea extract, bilberry extract and garlic are newly added.
The announcement also specifies the scope of terminology permitted during experimentation and makes improvements on the available experimental protocols. It revises the experimentation protocols of five ingredients including beta-carotene.
We provide full-scale global food market entry services (including product registration, ingredient review, regulatory consultation, customized training, market research, branding strategy). Please contact us to discuss how we can help you by 
