The General Administration of Customs has revised and released new regulations to strengthen the supervision of imported food safety

Beijing, March 19 (Xinhua) -- It was learned from a press conference held by the General Administration of Customs on the 19th that in order to further improve the level of imported food safety supervision and facilitate imported food trade, the General Administration of Customs recently revised and released the "Regulations on the Registration and Management of Overseas Production Enterprises of Imported Food by the People's Republic of China Customs" and supporting implementation announcements. Relevant policy measures will be officially implemented from June 1, 2026.

As an important lever to strengthen the source supervision and risk management of imported food, the current regulations have been implemented for more than four years since January 1, 2022. More than 96000 food enterprises from 178 countries (regions) around the world have registered in China. While Norwegian salmon, New Zealand frozen fruits and other multi country specialty foods have been placed on Chinese dining tables, it has also driven China's total import food trade from 1.05 trillion yuan in 2020 to 1.32 trillion yuan in 2025.

Li Jinsong, Director of the Import and Export Food Safety Bureau of the General Administration of Customs, stated that as China's level of opening up to the outside world continues to improve, the number of registration applications for overseas food production enterprises is rapidly increasing, and it is necessary to further improve the registration management system.

Li Jinsong introduced that the new regulations highlight the implementation of the "four strictest" requirements for food safety, strengthen source management, and supervise the entire process. At the same time, fully considering the connection with the existing registration system, the import food trade of registered enterprises worldwide will not only not be affected, but will also be more convenient through new regulations. Among them, for registered enterprises other than meat and meat products, bird's nest and bird's nest products, the expiration date will be automatically extended.

For newly registered enterprises, the new regulations will promote more efficient and convenient import registration through optimizing registration application methods, simplifying application materials, and adding a 'list registration' fast track, "said Li Jinsong.

The new regulations also specify that when registered enterprises export food to China, they shall label the food packaging with the registration number in China or the registration number approved by the competent authority of the country (region) where they are located.

Xiao Shaoqiong, Chief Analyst and Director of the Industry Policy Research Office of the China Meat Association, said that this means that consumers can log in to the General Administration of Customs' registration management system for overseas production enterprises of imported food to query registered enterprise information. This move can not only help consumers distinguish between genuine and fake imported food, allowing them to buy clearly and eat with confidence, but also help to unite social governance forces and promote the more standardized and orderly development of the imported food market.

Li Jinsong expressed his belief that the smooth implementation of the new regulations can continue to safeguard the smooth import of food trade, inject new momentum, add new vitality, and provide new models for global food safety governance.