Food

Not on its own. The overseas facility has to be registered with the Chinese authority for the specific product type. A facility approved for one product is not automatically approved for another.

Plan for the label to be compliant on arrival. On ordinary prepackaged food a non-safety labelling defect can in some cases be dealt with by technical treatment under customs supervision before release, and we handle that when it arises. It is slow, it costs more than getting it right, and it is not guaranteed. Health food has no such route: its Chinese label must be printed on the smallest sales package and may not be applied as a sticker, so a reprint at origin is the only correction. We design and pre-check Chinese label artwork with clients before printing for exactly this reason, alongside the product documentation it has to agree with.

No. Requirements differ substantially between food types, and experience with one does not transfer cleanly to another. The product type is settled first, because it determines both the licence and the documentation. For health food in particular, a first-time registration runs on a scale of months, not weeks, so it belongs in the commercial plan rather than the shipping plan.

Usually yes, within fifteen days of receiving the result, with the goods and their seals kept as they are. Customs reviews the application within fifteen days and issues a conclusion within sixty days of accepting it, extendable for technically complex cases. Three situations are not re-examined at all: microbiological limits exceeded, reserve samples past their shelf life, and any case where the reserve sample can no longer serve the purpose. Because the first of those has no appeal route, sampling is where the outcome is effectively decided.

At least six months beyond the end of shelf life, or at least two years where no shelf life is stated. The records cover product name, specification, quantity, production date, shelf life, the overseas exporter, the buyer and the dates of import and sale. Customs audits them against the filing, so this is a continuing obligation rather than a closing formality.

Yes, and there is a deadline: filed details must be updated within thirty days of the change. Address, legal representative, contact, the categories actually traded and the address where food is stored are all checked against the filing during an audit. A filing that no longer matches reality is the easiest of the three audit areas to fail.

The People’s Republic of China — not China, not a city, and not the consignee’s name. On the same outer packaging, the place of origin has to go down to state, province or city rather than stopping at the country, alongside specification, production date, shelf life, storage temperature and the exporting country’s official inspection mark. Inner packaging carries country of origin, product name, the establishment registration number and the batch number. Cartons printed to another market’s convention fail on these two fields more often than on anything else, and a print run is not quickly corrected.

The exporting country’s authority, through official channels, and the electronic data has to reach Chinese customs at least forty-eight hours before the goods arrive. Because the obligation sits with a foreign authority rather than with anyone in the commercial chain, it is the step most often left unowned. On a short sea leg or an air shipment forty-eight hours can be most of the transit, so it is arranged when the certificate is issued rather than when the vessel is due.

No. Meat that fails is returned or destroyed as a whole batch — there is no partial release and no technical treatment route of the kind available for some other foods. Where you need to claim against the supplier or an insurer, customs will issue a health certificate or veterinary health certificate as the circumstances require, and that is the document the claim rests on.