Since 2021, the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has issued several revisions to the "Implementation Rules of the Special Law on imported Food Safety Management". In order to solidly implement the technical trade measures consulting services for export enterprises, and help our food production and processing enterprises export business to Korea, let's take a look at the main contents of the previous revisions of this special law.
I. 2021/5/4 revision
On May 4, 2021, South Korea's MFDS issued some amendments to the "imported Food Safety Management Special Law Implementation Decree". This amendment was implemented for the smooth implementation of the HACCP certification system for imported kimchi products.
Major revisions：
The main content of this revision is to entrust the relevant business to the Certification Institute of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, including the analysis of each process and the hazard factors of various varieties, the investigation and evaluation of compliance with HACCP standards, and the HACCP certification related business of overseas production enterprises, etc. .
II. 2021/9/9 revision
On September 9, 2021, South Korea's MFDS released some amendments to the "Implementation Rules for the Special Law on imported Food Safety Management". This amendment newly established the basis for non-face-to-face investigations of overseas production enterprises and overseas workplaces.
Major revisions:
This revision added the use of virtual video inspection method to determine the non-contact investigation of overseas production enterprises and overseas factories as real-time two-way communication, and stipulate the safety measures for materials and videos transmitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
1. Taking into account the subject and purpose of the investigation, as well as the information and communication technology conditions of the exporting country, the non-face-to-face investigation should choose:
(1) A video communication method capable of real-time two-way communication;
(2) The method of receiving the data required for the investigation through the Internet and other information communication networks;
(3) Other methods of using information and communication technology approved by the Minister of Food and Drug Safety to facilitate the investigation.
2. Persons conducting non-face-to-face investigations pursuant to item 1 shall prepare necessary measures to ensure the security of data and images related to the investigation.
3. Matters required for non-face-to-face investigations other than those specified in Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be determined and announced by the Minister of Food and Drug Safety.
III. 2022/3/2
On March 2, 2022, South Korea's MFDS once again issued some amendments to the "Implementation Rules of the Special Law on imported Food Safety Management".
Major revisions:
1. Expand the scope of special management operators, and manage them as special management operators if they are closed without reporting imported food, etc.;
2. When importing livestock products or aquatic products from countries that have signed an agreement for declaration, the health certificate issued by the exporting country must be submitted;
3. In order to prevent the harm to national health caused by the direct purchase of overseas food, the relevant information such as the name, country of origin and manufactureres of the imported food products with hazard shall be published on the website of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety;
4. Relax the conditions for exempting document inspections for excellent importers: As an excellent importer, the import declaration items are more than 5 times a year, and there is no unqualified occurrence in the last 3 years, the document inspection can be omitted.
