In order for food products to enter the American market, first of all, the production factory of the products should meet the standards, in addition, the harmful chemicals or pollutants in the food should be below the maximum limit, and the outer packaging labels should meet the specified requirements. In this case, the provisions of the United States on food imports mainly include the following contents.
1. It is known that the importer or agent who arrives at the port will submit the declaration form and fill in the import documents to the customs at the port of entry within five working days of the arrival of the goods, and the customs will promptly notify the local FDA within the jurisdiction of the FDA. The FDA knows the entry of supervised food through the following channels:
(1) a copy of the customs entry declaration form (CF 3461, CF 3461ALT, CF 7511 or its substitute).
(2) copies of invoices and commercial invoices, as well as the guarantee of taking responsibility, paying taxes and receiving punishment.
2. Sampling inspection After the FDA reviews the importer's entry declaration form, it determines whether to conduct physical inspection, dock inspection or sampling inspection according to the nature of the food, the monitoring focus of the FDA in that year, and the previous records of this food. The FDA obtains the physical samples and sends them to the laboratories under the FDA for inspection and analysis. The most common detection items of FDA are pesticide residues, impurities, microorganisms, toxins, packaging and labels.
in case of automatic detention, the FDA will issue a notice of detention and hearing without sampling inspection.
if the FDA decides not to conduct sampling inspection, it will issue a "release notice" to the US Customs and the importer who applies. As far as FDA is concerned, the goods are released. If the imported food needs to be sampled due to quality and hygiene problems, the FDA should issue a "Sampling Notice" (FD712) to the US Customs and importers before sampling, and the goods must remain intact and wait for further notice. After FDA sampling, importers can move the goods to other docks or warehouses.
3. As a result, the FDA confirmed that the sample met the requirements after analysis, that is, it issued a "release notice" (FD 717) to the US Customs and importers; If the FDA determines that the sample "seems to violate the FDA law and other relevant laws and regulations", the FDA will issue a Notice of Detention and Hearing to the US Customs and importers (FD777), which will explain the reasons and nature of the violation and give the importers ten working days to state the reasons for accepting the goods. This hearing is the only opportunity for the importer to defend the imported food and/or provide evidence to make it legally enter the customs.
4. Hold a hearing. The FDA will hold a hearing on whether the product is acceptable or not. This is an opportunity for importers to state their affairs and is limited to providing relevant evidence. When the product is unqualified, FDA will issue a Notice of Refusal of Entry (FD772) to the importer, with copies of the Notice of Sampling, the Notice of Detention and Hearing, and the notice of handling the goods.
at the hearing, the importer provides evidence to prove that the product meets the requirements, provides sampling results that have been tested by reliable laboratories and meet the published standards for pollutants and residues in human food, and makes oral or written testimony on whether the goods are acceptable. If the importer or his designated representative does not respond to the Notice of Detention and Hearing and does not ask for an extension of the hearing period, he will give up his defense.
5. Re-evaluation According to this, the FDA will expand the sampling amount again, re-examine and evaluate, and if the sample is indeed legal, it will issue a "release notice" and send it to the customs and importers with the explanation materials of "original detention and release now". Otherwise, the original decision will be maintained and treated as illegal samples.
6. application for improvement. if the FDA determines that the sample is "unqualified", the importer can submit an application for "authorization to improve or take other measures (FDAFD766)", otherwise, the FDA will issue a "rejection notice".
FDA approved the importer's improvement procedures and methods, and stated in the application that the approved application contained a statement that "the goods must remain intact and cannot be moved at will before receiving the release notice from FDA".
if the past experience shows that the method proposed by the importer will not succeed, the FDA will consider the importer's improvement method invalid and will not agree to the improvement. In the second and last request, TWFDA will not consider it unless the importer puts forward meaningful improvement measures to ensure a considerable possibility of success, and the applicant will be notified from the FDAFD766 form.
importers apply for "authorization to improve or take other measures (FDAFD766)", which mostly requires that adulterated or mislabeled food be allowed to meet the requirements by re-labeling or taking other measures, or be transferred to non-edible items. At the same time, importers must put forward specific measures to make the food meet the requirements.
7. after the modification, it is judged that the importer has completed all the improvement procedures and notified the FDA that the goods can be inspected or sampled. The FDA collects improved food samples to determine whether they meet the standards. FDA shall review the improvement procedures proposed by importers, and conclude a contract for compensation for liquidation losses. The FDA conducts follow-up inspection and sampling to determine whether it meets the improved authorization clause.
FDA considers the sample qualified and issues a "release notice" to the importer and US Customs; The FDA determined that the samples were still unqualified and requested to be destroyed or returned. The FDA supervision fee is estimated in the FAD791 form, and a copy is sent to the US Customs to collect the total fee, including the fees required by customs personnel.
according to the above-mentioned food import procedures in the United States, if Chinese food exporters and American importers want to speed up the entry of goods, they should do a good job as follows: ① make sure that the products to be imported are legal before the goods are shipped; Ask a private laboratory to inspect the food samples to be imported and check the analysis of the processing factory. Although these analyses are not the final results, they may show that the processing plant has the ability to produce satisfactory and legal products; ③ Be familiar with the legal requirements of FDA before the freight contract; (4) Request the assistance of the FDA regional office in charge of the food entry port; ⑤ Be familiar with the food import procedures described in this article.
American law enforcement, inspection and supervision of imported food. If Chinese agricultural products want to enter the American market, they must be inspected by relevant American departments. Among them, the FDA, which belongs to the US Department of Human Health, is mainly responsible for the inspection of non-livestock and poultry meat products. When livestock and poultry products enter the United States, they must be inspected by the Food Safety Inspection Agency (FSIS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the export enterprises of meat food exporting countries must be evaluated and recognized by FSIS. FSIS evaluates the production and inspection systems of enterprises in importing countries, including document review and on-site inspection, focusing on pollution, disease, processing, residue and law-abiding operation; The expert group's inspection includes the equipment, facilities, laboratories, training programs and inspection work of the factory; There are four main government decrees that FDA abides by in law enforcement, namely, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, the Reasonable Packaging and Labeling Act, the Radiation Control and Health Safety Act, and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act.
FDA checks imported food, which covers the whole process from qualification, product quality, labeling and packaging to sales. For some special foods, such as canned foods with low acidity or foods with water activity above 1.85, it is necessary to register in the United States before listing in the United States. For canned food, enterprises can apply for "canned food factory registration number", that is, "FCE" number and processing report number (SID number). Enterprises fill in the FDA2541 form and apply directly to the FDA. If the importer in the United States holds the power of attorney of the factory, it can also handle it in the United States on its behalf, but all the contents of the form need to be implemented by the factory. If it is jam, alcohol, fermented food, food sold in cold storage, unsealed food, food with water activity below 1.35, etc., it is not necessary to apply for "FCE" number. For canned fish, FDA stipulates that the salt and oil used in the can should be described, and if oil pigment or chemical preservative is added, it must be listed in the label; Too much ingredient juice is not allowed; The canned fish should be fresh without any corruption, and the production process should prevent any microbial reproduction. Canned vegetables are required to be fresh and pure. Vegetables with slight signs of corruption are absolutely forbidden to enter the can. Before and after sealing, they should be properly heated to avoid corruption. If vegetables do not meet the perfect standard, their grades must be marked.
For fish products, because they are perishable, the customs adopts the flexible procedure of "immediate release", but they are not allowed to enter the American market until the documents are approved by the FDA or physical inspection. The inspection of fish mainly includes: corrupt microorganisms, excessive preservatives, heavy metals or chemical residues, unclean or polluted components, bacteria or natural toxins in the body. In order to ensure the food safety of fish products, it can also reduce excessive inspection. Since February, 1997, FDA has required manufacturers to meet the "HACCP" processing standards.
The United States imposes strict control on the import of poultry meat. First, poultry meat production enterprises and the countries where they are located must be approved by the Food Safety Inspection Agency (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture, and FSIS conducts inspection system evaluation on enterprises in countries that apply to export poultry meat to the United States. The evaluation includes two parts: the review of application documents and on-site inspection. Document review is conducted by technical experts to evaluate the relevant laws, regulations and other written materials of the applicant country, focusing on five dangerous key areas, such as pollution, disease, processing, residue and law-abiding operation. After the documents are approved, FSIS will send a technical expert group to conduct on-the-spot investigation, including the equipment, facilities, laboratories, training programs and factory inspection. If FSIS determines that the inspection system of the applicant country is basically the same as that of the United States, it can obtain the qualification to export poultry meat to the United States.
for poultry meat entering the American market, FSIS should recognize the packaging labels and implement the labeling standards. Labels should be printed in English and marked according to American product composition and labeling regulations. Generally speaking, the label should include the following contents: product name, country of origin and factory; The name and address of the factory or wholesaler, the net weight (pounds and ounces) in constant weight, the preservation status of various ingredients, etc. The label on the outside of the large packaging box of the product does not need to be licensed, but FSIS should check the label on the outer packaging when inspecting at the port of import. Therefore, the product name, country of origin, factory code, destination, landing dock, etc. must be marked on the front label outside the box, and special treatment status, such as "keep refrigeration" or "keep frozen", should be indicated outside the box. In addition, the name and address of the export processing factory or importer should also be indicated. All contents must be printed in English or posted on the outside of the box in the form of labels, and handwriting is not allowed to replace them.
when poultry meat products arrive at American ports, they must submit the customs declaration form to the local customs within 5 working days, and at the same time, it is required to submit the inspection certificate of the exporting country, which should indicate the exporting country, manufacturer, destination port (wharf) and quantity, prove that the products have been inspected by the inspection agency of the exporting country before and after slaughter, and ensure that the products are safe and hygienic, without adulteration, with correct marks, in line with American regulations, and attach an import inspection application report form.
the above documents will be sent to the animal and plant health inspection agency (APHIS) after being examined by the U.S. customs, so as to examine whether they violate the U.S. animal and plant health restrictions. When the documents are proved to be in compliance with the customs and APHIS regulations, the documents will be delivered to the FSIS Import Inspection Institute (IFO) which carries out import port inspection. The contents of the inspection application form will be input into the FSIS central computer system, that is, the automatic import information system (AIIS) and the AIIS automatic retrieval memory, to determine whether the country, the factory and the product are qualified to export poultry meat or meat products to the United States. After confirmation, AIIS will put forward the inspection scheme of this batch of products according to the product quality history of the enterprise, and the final inspection results will enter the file system of the country and the factory in AIIS.
the inspection contents indicated by p>AIIS include: retail packaging and net weight inspection, packaging container inspection, product defect inspection, canned heat preservation inspection, label inspection, additives and product components inspection, microbial contamination, various residues and experimental inspection of meat species identification, etc. After passing the inspection, each box shall be stamped with the seal of "Official Inspection" on the outer packaging label. If it does not meet the requirements, it shall be stamped with the seal of "No Entry into the United States" and the goods shall be exported, destroyed or turned into animal food within 45 days.
FSIS should track and check the inspection system of state enterprises that have obtained export qualifications, and check the newly approved export countries once every three months. If the equipment and factory production and inspection results are good and the quality of exported poultry meat meets the standards, the inspection shall be conducted every six months in the following year, with the aim of ensuring the safety of imported poultry meat products in time.
in short, to enter the American market, China's agricultural products need to make all kinds of adequate preparations, consult the import and export trade department of the local or national inspection and quarantine bureau, and keep abreast of the FDA's regulations and import procedures, and entrust importers to hire FDA professional lawyers to operate FDA registration, so that products can enter the American market smoothly.