China Updates Imported Food Enterprise Registration Rules to Boost Trade Convenience

From baked coffee beans from South Africa to dried nuts from Uzbekistan, and from salmon from Norway to frozen fruits from New Zealand, the list of imported foods purchased by Chinese consumers has been quietly expanding in recent years. Statistics from the General Administration of Customs show that the total trade volume of China’s imported food has grown steadily from 1.25 trillion yuan in 2021 to 1.32 trillion yuan in 2025.

Behind this upward trend lies the increasing variety of imported foods and the continuous growth in the number of registered overseas food production enterprises exporting to China. To date, more than 96,000 food enterprises from 178 countries and regions around the world have been registered in China, with the number of compliant suppliers keep rising.

To further improve the supervision level of imported food safety and facilitate imported food trade, the General Administration of Customs has recently revised and issued the Administrative Regulations on the Registration of Overseas Production Enterprises of Imported Food of the People's Republic of China and supporting implementation announcements. The relevant policies and measures will come into force on June 1, 2026.

The newly revised Regulations have introduced four innovative functions to enhance convenience, including the first establishment of risk-based classified registration management, which achieves more precise management requirements such as registration methods and review procedures through the implementation of a risk classification directory system. It also takes the lead in implementing automatic renewal of enterprise validity periods to optimize more efficient management of enterprise validity, promotes list-based enterprise registration for more convenient batch enterprise registration based on mutual recognition of food safety systems, and adopts intelligent auxiliary approval for enterprise registration to realize automatic review with the support of the latest technologies such as "artificial intelligence +", making enterprise registration faster.

In terms of existing registered enterprises, 95% of them will be eligible for automatic renewal of their validity periods upon expiration, except for two categories of food production enterprises: meat and meat products, and bird's nest and bird's nest products. For these two categories of enterprises that cannot enjoy automatic renewal, the application period for renewal has been extended from 3 to 6 months before expiration to 3 to 12 months, allowing sufficient time for enterprises to apply for renewal registration. In addition, more flexible and practical measures have been adopted for changes required by registered enterprises, mainly assessing whether relevant changes have a significant impact on the food safety and hygiene management and protection system, so as to maximize the normal development of food trade.

For newly applying enterprises, four aspects of convenience have been launched. The registration application method has been optimized to be submitted by enterprises themselves, replacing the previous "official recommendation registration" and "enterprise independent application registration". For foods included in the catalog of imported foods requiring official recommendation registration, enterprises can directly submit applications to Chinese authorities after obtaining inspection reports and recommendation letters from competent authorities. Application materials have been simplified, with enterprise identity documents no longer limited to business licenses but also including official certificates, and registration information such as "production type and production capacity" adjusted to be provided when necessary. Information feedback has been accelerated, with enterprise registration progress notified directly to enterprises through the system and also reported to overseas competent authorities. A "list registration" fast track has been added, enabling enterprises from countries and regions with a good cooperative foundation and bilateral agreements on import registration to enjoy the fast track brought by "list registration".

To refine and clarify the relevant requirements of the Regulations, the General Administration of Customs issued a supporting implementation announcement on March 18, publishing catalogs and lists such as the catalog of imported foods requiring official recommendation registration, the list of foods not eligible for automatic renewal of registration, and the scope of overseas storage enterprises subject to registration management based on risk assessment results, further specifying the declaration requirements for registration-related information of imported foods.

Compared with the original Regulations, the new version has removed six categories of primary edible agricultural products, including oilseeds, coarse grains, fresh vegetables, dried beans, condiments, and unroasted coffee beans and cocoa beans. For production enterprises of the removed primary edible agricultural products, the General Administration of Customs has previously issued an announcement on the relevant requirements for the declaration and management of overseas enterprises of imported agricultural products.

The formulation of the catalog mainly considers three risk factors: high food safety risks of relevant products, such as foods that have been detected unqualified by the customs for many times; relevant products that have experienced major food safety incidents causing great social concern; and reference to international practices, as major trading partners of China all adopt registration management measures for high-risk foods such as meat, dairy products and aquatic products.

Meat and meat products, and bird's nest and bird's nest products are included in the list of foods not eligible for automatic renewal of registration mainly based on risk assessment. Considering the high risks in the low-temperature storage and transportation of meat, aquatic products and other products, and that major trading countries have registration requirements for relevant cold storage, the announcement clearly includes cold storage for storing terrestrial animal-derived foods and aquatic products into the scope requiring registration, ensuring the transparent and predictable implementation of the Regulations.