Food & beverage (FDA)

Prior Notice, and the windows that actually bind

Every article of food offered for import needs a Prior Notice submitted to FDA before it arrives. Filed through ABI with the entry, as most commercial shipments are, it cannot go in more than 30 calendar days ahead, and it must be in no later than two hours before arrival by road, four hours by air or rail, and eight hours by water. Miss the window and the shipment is refused admission and held, which on an ocean container means it sits.

We file Prior Notice through the entry rather than as a separate errand, so the confirmation number is on the entry when CBP looks at it. If the goods are diverted, split, or arrive on a different conveyance than booked, the Prior Notice has to be amended. That is the failure mode we see most: a correct filing against a voyage that changed. The full mechanics are here.

Registration is the thing that quietly expires

The manufacturing, processing, packing and holding facilities in your supply chain must be registered with FDA under the food facility registration rules, and a foreign facility must name a US agent. Registration is not permanent. It has to be renewed every two years, in the window that runs from 1 October to 31 December of each even numbered year, and 2026 is one of those years. A registration that lapses is treated as no registration, and food from an unregistered foreign facility is refused. Registrations also carry a unique facility identifier, so a number that does not resolve is as bad as no number at all.

We check registration status on your suppliers as part of onboarding and again when a renewal year comes around, because your supplier has no reason to tell you it forgot.

FSVP: whose name is in that field

Under the Foreign Supplier Verification Program, someone has to be the FSVP importer for each food, and that party is identified by name, email and DUNS number at the line level of the entry. The FSVP importer is not automatically the importer of record. It is the US owner or consignee at the time of entry, or the US agent of the foreign owner where there is no US owner. Getting that wrong is not a clerical problem: it puts the verification obligation on a party that has no programme, and an FSVP inspection then arrives at the wrong door.

An FSVP inspection asks for hazard analysis, supplier evaluation and the records showing you actually did the verification activity you said you would. We keep the entry documentation aligned with that, and we tell you when a supplier change means the file needs to move.

When FDA says no

The sequence is fixed. A Notice of FDA Action moves the shipment from May Proceed to Detained, and the notice gives a short window, usually ten working days, to respond with evidence or ask for a hearing. If that fails, the goods are refused, and refused goods must be exported or destroyed under CBP supervision inside 90 days. You can sometimes recondition instead, but only with FDA approval of the method before you start.

The harder version is an import alert, which puts your product, facility or country on detention without physical examination. Every shipment is then held on paper before anyone looks at it, and the burden flips to you. Getting off an alert generally means at least five consecutive non-violative entries, tested at your cost by a private laboratory, plus evidence that whatever caused the listing has been fixed. We would rather do the work that keeps you off the list.

Labels get read at the worst possible moment

Nutrition panel format, ingredient statement, allergen declaration, net quantity and the country of origin marking are all checkable from a photograph, and FDA and CBP both do exactly that. The allergen list has nine entries now, sesame having joined it, and imported product printed before that change still turns up. Relabelling under CBP supervision at a bonded facility is possible and expensive. Reviewing a label artwork file before the print run is neither. Send us the artwork.

Classification and duty

Most prepared food lines carry a modest column one rate, but there are two traps worth knowing. Products with meaningful sugar or dairy content can fall inside a tariff rate quota under the additional US notes to Chapters 4 and 17, where the over quota rate is punitive and a quota certificate is the only way out. And heading 2106, food preparations not elsewhere specified, is where blended and compounded products end up. It is also where CBP disagrees with importers most often, because the answer turns on the ingredient breakdown rather than on what the product is called.

We ask for the formulation up front. Where the classification is genuinely arguable, a binding ruling costs a fraction of a rate advance two years later. Goods of Chinese origin should also be checked against the Section 301 lists, and everything should be checked against the emergency authority programmes in force on the day of entry, which have moved more than once since 2025.

What we need from you

1. A signed customs power of attorney and an adequate bond.
2. Commercial invoice and packing list, with the manufacturer named and its FDA registration number.
3. The FSVP importer name, address, email and DUNS number for each food.
4. Ingredient breakdown by percentage, including sugar and dairy content, for anything blended.
5. Label artwork, front and back, before the print run.
6. Trade agreement certifications of origin if you intend to claim one.