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 FDA within the jurisdiction of the local FDA. The FDA 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, as well as letters of guarantee for taking responsibility, paying taxes and accepting punishment.
2. Sampling inspection After reviewing the importer's entry declaration, the FDA will decide 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 the food. The FDA obtains physical samples and sends them to laboratories under the FDA 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 FDA 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 remain intact until further notice. After FDA sampling, importers can transfer the goods to other docks or warehouses.
3. Results After analysis, the FDA confirmed that the samples met the requirements, that is, it issued a "release notice" to the US Customs and importers (FD 717); ); 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 US Food and Drug Administration will hold a hearing on whether the product can be accepted. This is an opportunity for the importer to state the incident, 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 copies of the notice of sampling, the notice of detention and hearing, and the notice of handling the goods.
At the hearing, importers provide evidence to prove that the products meet the requirements, provide sampling results that have been tested by reliable laboratories and meet the published standards for pollutants and residues in human food, and make oral or written testimony on whether the goods are acceptable. If the importer or his designated representative fails to reply to the detention notice 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 once again expand the sampling size, 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, now release". Otherwise, maintain the original decision and treat it as an illegal sample.
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 not 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 the applicant will be notified from the FDAFD766 form.
When importers apply for "authorization of improvement or other measures (FDAFD766)", most of them require that adulterated or mislabeled foods meet the requirements or be transferred to non-edible items through relabeling or other measures. At the same time, the importer must put forward specific measures to make the food meet the requirements.
7. After the change, it is judged that the importer has completed all 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. 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 the sample was still unqualified and requested to be destroyed or returned. The FDA supervision fee is estimated in FAD790 form, and a copy is sent to 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 well: ① Before the goods are shipped, make sure that the products to be imported are legal; Please ask the private laboratory to check the food samples to be imported and check the analysis 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) 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.
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 them, the FDA under the US Department of Human Health is mainly responsible for the inspection of non-livestock and poultry meat products. The livestock and poultry products must pass the inspection of the Food Safety Inspection Bureau (FSIS) of the Ministry of Agriculture when they enter the United States, and the export enterprises of meat food exporting countries must pass the evaluation and approval of FSIS. FSIS evaluates the production and inspection system 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; 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 inspects imported food, covering the whole process from qualification, product quality, label packaging to sales. For some special foods, such as canned foods with low acidity or foods with water activity above 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 of the form need to be executed by the factory. If it is jam, alcohol, fermented food, food sold in cold storage, unopened 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 must be stated. 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 be canned. Before and after sealing, it should be properly heated to avoid corruption. If vegetables do not meet the perfect standard, their grades must be marked.
For fish products, due to perishable, the customs adopts a flexible procedure of "releasing the goods immediately", but it is not allowed to enter the American market before the documents are approved by FDA or physical inspection. The inspection of fish mainly includes: corrupt microorganisms, preservatives exceeding the standard, heavy metals or chemical residues, unclean or contaminated components, bacteria in the body or natural toxins. In order to ensure the food safety of fish products, excessive inspection can also be reduced. The FDA began to require manufacturers to meet "HACCP" processing standards in February 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 will evaluate the inspection system of enterprises in countries that apply to export poultry meat to the United States. The evaluation includes two parts: application document review and on-site inspection. In the document review, technical experts will evaluate the relevant laws and regulations of the applicant country and other written materials, focusing on five key dangerous areas, 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; The name and address of the factory or wholesaler, the net weight of the constant weight (pounds and ounces), the 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 inspecting at the import port. 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 "cold storage" or "frozen storage", must 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 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, and prove that the products have been inspected before and after slaughter by the inspection agency of the exporting country to ensure that the products are safe and hygienic, free from adulteration, correctly marked and in line with American laws and regulations, and an import inspection application report form is attached.
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 it is proved that these documents meet the requirements of the customs and animal and plant quarantine authorities, they will be sent to the FSIS Import Inspection Bureau (IFO) for 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 indicated 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 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 shall follow up the inspection system of state-owned enterprises that have obtained export qualifications, and inspect newly approved export countries once every three months. Equipment and factory production inspection results are good, and the quality of exported poultry meat meets the standards, and inspection is conducted once every six months in the following year, with the aim of ensuring the safety of imported poultry meat products in time.
In a word, if China's agricultural products want to enter the American market, they need to make all kinds of full preparations, consult the import and export trade department of the local or national inspection and quarantine bureau, and know the FDA's regulations and import procedures in time. You can entrust importers to hire FDA professional lawyers to operate FDA registration, so that products can enter the American market smoothly.