What types of enterprises need food inspection agency services?

According to the 2025 revised ,import and exportFood Safety Management Measures, the following three types of enterprises must entrust inspection agencies:

• Food production enterprises exporting for the first time
• Enterprises exporting high-risk foods (dairy products/infant food/food for special medical purposes)
• Small and medium-sized enterprises without a well-established quality and safety management system

Taking a frozen food enterprise served by our company as an example, due to the lack of a HACCP certification system, the enterprise successfully completed export inspection to Japan after supplementing quality documents through an agency.

How to choose a reliable inspection agency?

3. How to Identify High-quality Agency Service Providers?

• Official certifications:
  • Enterprises with AEO advanced certification by the customs
  • Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Agency Filing
• Industry experience:
  • At least 3 years of experience in food inspection operations
  • Successful cases in the same category (e.g., frozen food/canned food/condiments)
• Service capabilities:
  • Providing full-process visual tracking systems
  • A team of professional food inspection specialists

What services does an inspection agency specifically include?

Professional agencies should provide four core services:

• Pre-inspection services: Reviewing production records and test reports in advance
• Document preparation: Preparing bilingual (Chinese-English) health certificates and inspection reports
• On-site coordination: Accompanying customs officials during on-site inspections (new video inspection method added in 2025)
• Emergency handling: Developing rectification plans for non-compliant products

Special attention is required: Since the implementation of the General Administration of Customs Announcement No. 102 in 2023, compliance review of export food packaging has become a mandatory inspection item.

What is the complete process of inspection agency services?

• Preparation phase (3-5 days)
  • Signing a tripartite service agreement
  • Collecting enterprise qualification documents (SC certificate/export filing certificate)
• Declaration phase (2 days)
  • Entering data through the International Trade Single Window
  • Uploading electronic test reports
• Inspection phase (1-3 days)
  • Assisting customs with sampling and testing
  • Handling laboratory testing anomalies

How are commodity inspection agency fees calculated?

The industry charging standards in 2025 mainly include:

• Basic service fee: 800-2000 yuan per batch (depending on product risk level)
• Testing surcharge: Charged according to actual laboratory testing items
• Express processing fee: Additional 30% service fee if certification is required within 48 hours

An export case of seasonings shows that the total routine commodity inspection cost was about 3500 yuan, with microbiological testing accounting for 60% of the cost.

What are the common reasons for failing commodity inspection?

According to our companys statistics for the first half of 2025, the main problems are concentrated in:

• Labels not meeting the requirements of importing countries (accounting for 38%)
• Excessive additives (especially preservatives)
• Abnormal microbiological indicators (common in cases of frozen food thawing and refreezing)

We recommend that enterprises confirm the latest regulations of target countries with agencies before production, such as the EUs new regulation (EU) 2025/347 on food contact materials which took effect in March this year.