Know everything about the food customs declaration process here!

Delicious food can easily arouse people's taste buds and make them yearn for it. Nowadays, with the development of globalization, more and more imported foods have appeared in our lives, and those delicious domestic special foods are also constantly going global. But have you ever thought about what kind of customs declaration process these foods have to go through when trading across borders? Today, let's uncover the mysterious veil of the food customs declaration process together.

Before officially conducting food customs declaration, a series of important preparatory work needs to be completed.

• First of all, relevant enterprises or individuals should ensure that the imported or exported food complies with the relevant laws, regulations, and food safety standards of the destination or source. Different countries and regions have clear regulations on aspects such as the ingredients, labels, and packaging of food. For example, the food label needs to clearly mark information such as ingredients, shelf life, and consumption methods. This step is of crucial importance. If it does not meet the requirements, there will be numerous obstacles in the subsequent customs declaration.

• Secondly, complete customs declaration materials should be prepared. Usually, it includes commercial invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, certificates of origin, ingredient analysis reports of food, sanitary certificates, etc. These materials are important bases for the customs to understand the situation of the goods, assess risks, and carry out operations such as taxation. Their authenticity and integrity must be ensured.

When the preparatory work is ready, it enters the formal customs declaration process.

• The first step is declaration. The customs declaration enterprise or customs declaration agent needs to enter the relevant information of the food, such as the name, specifications, quantity, and value of the goods, in the specified format through the customs' electronic port system, and upload the prepared customs declaration materials. The customs will conduct a preliminary review of the declared information. If it finds that the information is incomplete or there are doubts, it will require supplementation or explanation.

• The second step is inspection. If the declaration passes the preliminary review, the customs may decide whether to inspect the goods according to risk assessment and other situations. The inspection methods generally include unpacking inspection and sampling inspection. For food, sampling inspection is very common. The customs will send the sampled products to a professional laboratory for testing, mainly to check whether the food safety indicators meet the standards, such as whether there are harmful substances and whether the microbiological indicators are qualified. Only when the test results are qualified can the goods continue with the subsequent processes.

• The third step is taxation. The customs will levy tariffs and other taxes on imported food according to the type, value, and other factors of the goods, in accordance with relevant tariff policies. The customs declaration enterprise or individual needs to pay the corresponding taxes within the specified time, otherwise the goods will be detained.

• The last step is release. When the above processes are successfully completed and the taxes are paid, if there are no other abnormal situations, the customs will release the goods, and the goods can smoothly enter the domestic market for circulation or be shipped to the foreign destination.

The completion of food customs declaration does not mean everything is okay. There are still some follow-up precautions that need attention.

• For imported food, enterprises should do a good job in sales records, traceability management, etc. of the food in accordance with domestic food safety supervision requirements. In this way, once a food safety problem occurs, it can be traced back to the source in a timely manner, and effective measures can be taken for handling.

• Regarding exported food, enterprises should pay timely attention to the feedback from the market of the destination country. If there are problems caused by the customs declaration link or other situations that affect sales, they should communicate and coordinate with relevant parties in a timely manner to resolve them and maintain the international market image of the enterprise.

The food customs declaration process may seem complicated, but as long as you are familiar with the requirements and operation specifications of each link, you can complete it smoothly. Whether you are a consumer who wants to know how imported delicacies come to you, or a practitioner engaged in food import and export trade, you can benefit from understanding this. I hope everyone has a clearer understanding of the food customs declaration process. If you have other questions or experiences in this regard, you are welcome to leave a message and share in the comment section!