It is learned that Korea will officially implement the Special Law on Management of Imported Food Safety on Feb. 4, next year. The current management provisions regarding imported food safety are distributed into four different decrees, respectively Food Safety Law, Health Functional Food Law, Law on Health Management of Livestock Products, and Law on Prevention of Livestock Contagious Diseases. The four management standards are not unified. When clearance, different varieties of food shall be applied to different departments. The port inspection lacks unified specifications. While the new Special Law on Management of Imported Food Safety integrates the specifications in the four decrees regarding imported foods.

This new law of Korea also emphasizes on enterprise entity liability, and implements registration system of excellent importer and overseas excellent manufacturers. One of the condition for registration as excellent importer is to inspect health management status of overseas manufacturers according to standards of Korea. The validity period of this registration is three years. When foreign manufacturers apply for registering as excellent overseas manufacturer, they shall accept on-situ investigation of food and drug department. The validity period of registration is also three years.

In addition, Korea also will implement differentiated management, and grade imported products according to risk level, record of hazardous substance inspection and foreign food safety information, and carry out differentiated management according to modes of general, cautious and intensive.