South Korea Implements Digital Inspection for All Imported Foods

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS)’s announcement on May 20, 2024,  the "SAFE-i24" digital inspection system is expanded to cover all imported food products. ¹

The digital inspection system can automatically review the import declaration documents and issue a declaration confirmation if the products comply with Korean regulations. The review of these documents can be completed within 5 minutes anytime without working hour limitations.

The digital inspection system was only applicable to food additives, agricultural products, livestock products, and fishery products in the past. According to MFDS, applying the digital inspection to processed foods and health functional foods, which account for around 41% of total food imports, will allow document reviews to be conducted 24/7. The processing time will also be significantly reduced from 48 hours to within 5 minutes. This will enable importers to save time and costs while allowing consumers to receive products more quickly.

Besides, to reflect the industry's call for adopting the SAFE-i24 system for processed foods and health functional foods, the authority started to implement the application expansion one month earlier than the plan.

Note that the imported foods subject to the digital inspection must meet the following criteria:

• Repeatedly imported foods subject to document review

• No additional on-site, detailed, or random sampling inspections required

• Deemed suitable based on the digital review results

MFDS also plans to apply the digital document inspection to imported food utensils, containers, and packaging by the end of 2024. ChemLinked will keep on updating on this topic.

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