Food & Medicine Import New Regulations

Attention, spice and food importers! This new regulation can save you significant time and costs. Hello everyone! If you’re in the imported food and spice business, pay attention — I have some great news to share! Starting January 1, 2026, a group of familiar “food-and-medicine dual-use” products will see accelerated import clearance! According to the latest joint announcement by the General Administration of Customs and three other government bodies, 30 food-drug substances have been added to the “pilot classified import supervision” list. What’s on it? Common kitchen and food factory items like cloves, star anise, fennel, turmeric, cardamom, nutmeg, as well as familiar ones like licorice and goji berries. What’s the biggest change brought by this policy? Simply put, it’s “classified management, differentiated treatment.” Going forward, when importing these 30 listed products, as long as you clearly declare them for non-medicinal purposes such as food or spices, you will no longer need to go through the complex and time-consuming process of obtaining an “Import Pharmaceutical Customs Clearance Certificate”! Customs will release them directly under standard food supervision requirements. For businesses in this space, this means simpler procedures, significantly shorter clearance times, and lower costs — a genuine boost in efficiency and cost reduction. However, there is one critically important detail you must keep in mind: the prerequisite for “classified supervision” is that your goods are genuinely “non-medicinal.” If your products are indeed intended for pharmaceutical manufacturing, you still need to follow all pharmaceutical import regulations to the letter — no shortcuts. So accuracy in your declaration is absolutely essential. This policy was announced last December and officially took effect early this year. Its core objective is to optimize the business environment and facilitate compliant import and export enterprises. If you work in the relevant industry, I recommend visiting the General Administration of Customs website right away, finding “Announcement No. 237 of 2025,” and downloading the attachment — it contains the complete list of 30 substances and detailed implementation requirements. Check it once, plan ahead, and put this policy dividend to real use in your business. A small regulatory change can bring big convenience to your operations. Hope this information helps! This is Lao Tao from international logistics — see you next time!