South Korea Specifies Hygiene Requirements of Foods Subject to Special Management

The scope of food subject to special management has been specified. Countries and product types approved for importation have been detailed. South Korean authorities will conduct sanitation assessment of exporters on a first come first served based as assessed by the submission sequence of questionnaires submitted by exporting countries.

At the end of 2018, MFDS first put forward the terminology “food subject to special management” in Import Food Act ^[1] and later added its import sanitation assessment in Imported Food Act Implementation Rules ^[2].

In order to supplement relevant rules, on June 19th, MFDS formulated the Import Sanitation Requirements of Food Subjected to Special Management ^[3] on June 19th. Here’s the main content:

Main Content

1.Specific scope of food subject to special management, including

frozen edible fish head, only limited to Gadus morhua, Gadus ogac, Gadus macrocephalus, Merluccius australis, Dissostichus eleginoides, and Dissostichus mawsoni.
edible part of frozen edible fish head (except for pufferfish genus)
internal organs of frozen edible fish (limited to the liver and egg of all fishes, roe of Alaska polloc, fish sperm)
internal organs of frozen edible mollusks (limited to the squid nidamental gland)

2.Countries and product types approved to import food subject to special management.

Countries	Approved product types
France	Edible part of frozen edible fish head
Japan	Edible part of frozen edible fish head internal organs of frozen edible fishes and mollusks
Peru	Edible part of frozen edible fish head internal organs of frozen edible fishes and mollusks
…	…

3.Specific procedures for import sanitation assessment

South Korea authorities will conduct the import sanitation assessment according to the submission sequence of questionnaires received from the exporting countries.
Import sanitation assessment will cease when exporting countries fail to reply to Korea’s questionnaires in written form within one year.

4.Import sanitation requirements

The production, manufacturing, processing of food subject to special sanitation management shall conform to South Korea’s sanitation regulations.
Authorities in exporting countries shall supervise overseas manufacturers that deal with food subject to special management.
Overseas entities wishing to import food into South Korea must register their manufacturing/production/processing facility. They can register foreign food facilities on MFDS website. (read Registration of Foreign Food Facilities in South Korea ^[4] for more info)
Overseas manufacturers shall conform to relevant standards, recall procedures and methods to deal with unqualified food subject to special management.

5.Authorities in exporting countries have obligations to notify the South Korea government when food subject to special management poses a hazard.

6.Management of overseas manufacturers dealing with food subject to special management.

Exporting countries shall inspect the sanitation conditions of manufacturers that have passed the import sanitation assessment and notify the South Korean government.

7.Onsite inspection requirements

Foods subject to special management that are noncompliant with import sanitation requirements, may require MFDS to conduct the onsite inspection of the facility and talk to relevant staff face to face or check relevant materials.

8.Exporting countries shall supervise hygiene and sanitation testing of food subjected to special management and the examination capacity of inspection officials.