1. It is known that the importer or agent who arrives at the port will submit the customs declaration form and fill in the import documents to the customs at the port of entry within five working days after the arrival of the goods, and the customs will promptly notify the local FDA within its jurisdiction. The US Food and Drug Administration is informed of the entry of controlled foods through the following channels:
(1) Copy of customs entry declaration form (CF 346 1, CF346 1LT, CF 750 1 or its substitute).
(2) Copies of invoices and commercial invoices, and a letter of guarantee for taking responsibility, paying taxes and accepting punishment.
2. Sampling inspection After reviewing the importer's entry declaration, the FDA will determine 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 past records of the food. The US Food and Drug Administration obtains physical samples and sends them to the laboratories under the US Food and Drug Administration for inspection and analysis. The most common detection items of FDA are pesticide residues, impurities, microorganisms, toxins, packaging and labeling.
In the case of automatic detention, 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 applying for it. As far as the Food and Drug Administration is concerned, the goods are released. If the imported food needs to be sampled due to quality and hygiene problems, the FDA shall issue a Sampling Notice (FD7 12) to the US Customs and importers before sampling, and the goods must be kept intact until further notice. After FDA sampling, importers can transfer the goods to other docks or warehouses.
3. Therefore, the FDA confirmed that the samples met the requirements after analysis, that is, it issued a "release notice" (FD 717) to US customs and importers; ); If the FDA determines that the sample "seems to violate FDA laws and other relevant laws and regulations", the FDA will issue a detention and hearing notice (FD777) to the US Customs and importers, 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 importers to defend 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 can be accepted. This is an opportunity for importers to state their affairs, which is limited to providing relevant evidence. When the product is unqualified, the FDA will issue a notice of refusal to enter the country (FD772) to the importer, with a copy of the notice of sampling, 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 qualified. 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 Based on this, the FDA will expand the sampling amount again, re-examine and evaluate the samples, and if the samples are indeed legal, issue a "release notice" and send it to the customs and importers with the explanation materials of "original detention and now release". 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 "authorized improvement or other measures (FDAFD766)", otherwise, the FDA will issue a "rejection notice".
The FDA approved the importer's improved procedures and methods, and pointed out in the application that the approved application contained a statement that "the goods must be kept intact and cannot be moved at will before receiving the release notice from the FDA".
If past experience shows that the method proposed by the importer will not succeed, the FDA will consider the importer's improved method invalid and will not agree to the improvement. In the second and final application, TWFDA will not consider it unless the importer puts forward meaningful improvement measures to ensure a considerable possibility of success, and will inform the applicant from the FDAFD766 form.
Importers apply for "Authorization for Improvement or Other Measures (FDAFD766)", which mostly requires that adulterated or mislabeled food be allowed to meet the requirements through re-labeling or other measures, or be transferred to non-edible items. At the same time, the importer must put forward specific measures to make the food meet the requirements.
7. After the change, judge that the importer has completed all the improvement procedures and notify the FDA that the goods can be inspected or sampled. The FDA collects improved food samples to determine whether they meet the standards. The FDA should review the improved procedures proposed by importers and sign a liquidation loss compensation contract. The FDA conducts follow-up inspection and sampling to determine whether it meets the improved authorization terms.
The FDA considers the sample qualified and issues a "release notice" to the importer and the US Customs; The FDA determined that these samples were still unqualified and requested to be destroyed or returned. The FDA supervision fee is estimated in the FAD790 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 American food import procedures, if China food exporters and American importers want to speed up the entry of goods, they should do the following work: ① Ensure that the products to be imported are legal before shipment; Please ask the private laboratory to check the food samples to be imported and check the analysis results of the processing factory. Although these analyses are not the final results, they may indicate that the processing plant has the ability to produce satisfactory legal products; ③ Be familiar with the legal requirements of FDA before signing the freight contract; (4) Requesting the assistance of the regional office of the US Food and Drug Administration in charge of the food entry port; ⑤ Be familiar with the food import procedures described in this article.
The law enforcement inspection and supervision of imported food in the United States must pass the inspection of relevant departments in the United States, among which 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 pass the inspection of the Food Safety Inspection Bureau (FSIS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the export enterprises of meat food exporting countries must pass the evaluation and approval of 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 inspection of the expert group includes the equipment, facilities, laboratory, training plan and inspection of the factory; The FDA abides by four major government decrees 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.
The FDA inspects imported food, covering 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 higher than 0.85, 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 form of FDA254 1 and apply directly to FDA. If the importer in the United States holds the power of attorney from the factory, it can also handle it in the United States, but all the contents in the form need to be executed by the factory. If it is jam, alcohol, fermented food, food sold in cold storage, unsealed food, food with water activity below 0.35, etc. , there is no need to apply for "FCE" number. For canned fish, FDA stipulates that the salt and oil used in canned fish 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; Canned fish should be fresh without any corruption, and the production process should prevent any microbial reproduction. Canned vegetables require freshness and purity. Vegetables with slight signs of corruption are absolutely forbidden to enter canned food. Before and after sealing, they should be properly heated to avoid corruption. If vegetables do not meet the perfect standard, they must be marked with their grades.
For fish products, because they are perishable, the customs adopts a flexible procedure of "releasing the goods immediately", but they are not allowed to enter the US market before the documents are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration or physical inspection. The inspection of fish mainly includes: corrupt microorganisms, excessive preservatives, heavy metals or chemical residues, unclean or polluting components, bacteria in the body or natural toxins. In order to ensure the food safety of fish products, excessive inspection can also be reduced. In February this year, the US Food and Drug Administration began to require manufacturers to meet the "HACCP" processing standard, namely 1997.
The United States strictly controls the import of poultry meat. First of all, poultry meat producers and host countries must obtain the approval of the Food Safety Inspection Bureau (FSIS) of the US Department of Agriculture, and FSIS conducts inspection system evaluation for enterprises in countries applying for exporting poultry meat to the United States. The evaluation includes two parts: application document review and on-site inspection. In the document review, technical experts evaluate the relevant laws, regulations and other written materials of the applicant country, focusing on five key areas of danger, such as pollution, disease, processing, residue and law-abiding operation. After the document is approved, FSIS will send a technical expert group to conduct field visits, including equipment, facilities, laboratories, training plans and factory inspections. 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 label on its packaging and be able to implement the label standard. 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; Name and address of the factory or wholesaler, constant weight and net weight (pounds and ounces), preservation status of various components, etc. The label on the outside of the large product packaging box does not need permission, but FSIS should check the label on the outer packaging when checking at the port of import. Therefore, product name, country of origin, factory code, destination, landing dock, etc. It must be marked on the front label outside the box, and the special treatment status, such as "keep cold" or "keep frozen", must be marked 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 pasted 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 five working days, and at the same time, they are 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, free from adulteration, correctly marked and in line with American laws and regulations, and attach an import inspection application report form.
The above documents will be sent to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Bureau (APHIS) to check whether they violate the American animal and plant health restrictions. When the certification documents meet the requirements of the Customs and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Bureau, the documents will be delivered to the FSIS Import Inspection Agency (IFO), which will carry out the inspection at the import port. 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 countries, factories and products are qualified to export poultry meat or meat products to the United States. After confirmation, AIIS will put forward the inspection plan 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 AIIS factory.
The inspection contents marked by AIIS include: retail packaging and net weight inspection, packaging container inspection, product defect inspection, canned heat preservation inspection, label inspection, additive and product composition inspection, microbial contamination, various residues and meat species identification experimental inspection. After passing the inspection, each box should 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-owned enterprises that have obtained export qualifications, and check the newly approved export countries every three months. If the production and inspection results of equipment and factories are good and the quality of exported poultry meat meets the standards, the inspection should be carried out once every six months in the following year, in order to ensure the safety of imported poultry products in time.
In a word, in order to enter the American market, China agricultural products need to make full preparations, consult the import and export trade department of the local or national inspection and quarantine bureau, and keep abreast of FDA regulations and import procedures. You can entrust importers to hire FDA professional lawyers to operate FDA registration, so that products can enter the American market smoothly.