Purpose

To secure safety of food imports by preemptively identifying any food safety hazards in manufacturing and processing facilities either by; conducting onsite inspections or, requiring the exporting country government to administer inspections and report the results

Legal Basis

Article 19 of the Food Sanitation Act and Article 15 of its Enforcement Rule

Article 8 of「The Health Function Food Act」and Article 11 of its Enforcement Rule

Outline

Qualification

Food, food additives, utensils, containers, and packages to be exported to Korea ( agricultural and forestry food products and other food products made though simple processing are excluded)

Health function food

Application procedures

Applying for registration for Prior Inspection Completion (required documents must be attached) > evaluation of documents > onsite inspection > final evaluation and determination > registration, notification

Required documents

Supporting documents with details of food products (product name, mixing ratio of ingredients, manufacturing process)

Original test reports or test certificates issued by certified public test agencies based in the Republic of Korea or foreign countries

Documents of addresses of manufacturing and processing facilities, building arrangement map (machinery, equipment layout included), factory floor plan, etc.

Inspection Items

whether or not the products should be included in the sales prohibition list with safety hazards

whether or not the product's criteria and standards are adequate

whether or not the facilities meet prescribed minimum standards

whether or not there are any false or misleading labels

whether or not the product satisfies HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) standards

Incentives

Expedited customs clearance without close inspection and random sampling inspection

Costs

Application charge of KRW 28,000

Travel expenses for onsite inspectors (air fares, daily expenditure, lodging and meals in accordance with the ROK Public Officials' Travel Expense Guideline)