Foreign Food Facility Registration (MFDS)
It is mandatory for all foreign product importers to register their supplier’s production facilities with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). This legislation (known as ‘The Special Act on Imported Food Safety’) came into effect on 4th February 2016.
Foreign Facility Registration ensures that imported products can be traced to their original place of manufacturing or production, helping to increase accountability and transparency throughout the supply chain. Any food, beverage or product produced in a foreign facilities that fails to register will be refused import to Korea by the MFDS. Registration can be made on behalf of the producer by Taesan Liquor (registration form downloadable below) or directly by the producer via the MFDS System here. It is mandatory for all importers, like Taesan Liquor, to register an overseas facility with the MFDS at least seven days before the first importation of any product. However, it is always company policy to register a facility before any order is placed. This usually takes about three days to receive registration confirmation, with the registration needing to be renewed every two years.
FAQ
If you use a third party manufacturing facility or bottling plant, or have sourced white label stock from another producer and created a brand of your own, you cannot fill this registration form out yourself. Instead you must get the company who bottles or produces the product for you to fill this document out and sign it. Their name will then be added under the “Manufacturer” section of the small Korean language label that we legally must apply to all imported products. This is a fairly common occurrence in Korea, and consumers are very used to seeing a manufacturer’s name that is different to the brand name/brand owner. For example large brands like Samsung occasionally outsource their production to smaller companies; therefore it is not uncommon for the labelling of said products to contain the outsourced manufacturer’s name (e.g. “Mr. Kim’s Electronics Company”) instead of “Samsung” on the “Manufacturer” section of the Korean language labelling.
If any changes are made it is imperative that the information is immediately communicated to the importer (Taesan Liquor) as the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) must be informed and the relevant information updated on their system.
Once a facility has been registered with the MFDS any other importer importing your products into Korea can use your registration number without additional information or registration. If you choose to change importers, or you have numerous lines being imported by a number of different importers, please contact your former importer (who originally registered you with the MFDS) and request your registration number.