Application for Import Health Certificate to be processed through E-Submission system

Food and Drug Administration (FDA Myanmar) of the Ministry of Health announced on 17 October that Import Health Certificate (IHC) applications will be screened and accepted through the E-Submission system from the first week of November.
According to FDA Myanmar’s announcement, the Food Division of the Food and Drug Administration received and verified the import health certificate application through the MACCS system manually.
In turn, it was announced that starting from the first week of November, the IHC application will be screened and accepted through the E-Submission system.
There are four steps in applying for Domestic Import Health Certification. In step 1, the import permit applicant must obtain an application from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Ministry of Health and apply with other necessary documents.
Other documents to be submitted are an import approval certificate for each type of food product to be imported, health certification issued by the relevant country’s food and beverage control department/organization, or weekly laboratory tests of production for the food to be imported, documents imported by ship, aircraft, and vehicle, and import declaration issued by the Customs Department, and product shipment record.
The Customs Department will take samples of the products after arriving at the port, and send them to the FDA for laboratory testing in Step 2.
In the case of food samples or large packages that are not sent in original packaging, a photograph of the product or a sample of the brand must be included.
The size of the sample to be sent is 1,500 grammes. When taking material samples and conducting tests, the amount of samples taken for testing is different depending on the type of material.
FDA will send a rejection letter to the applicant for applications with incomplete information (or unsuccessful laboratory test results) in Step 3.
In Step 4, FDA will issue an import health certificate to applicants who have submitted a complete and correct application and laboratory test results. The applicant can go and collect the import health certificate and the process will be completed.
In such an application, the time at the department that receives the documents and samples can be increased by about 1 day, and the time to get approval from the Director General can be increased from a minimum of 1 day to a maximum of 2 days.
It is reported that the sample laboratory test can take a minimum of 1 day to a maximum of 25 days, and the entire application process can take a minimum of 14 days to a maximum of 31 days.
FDA Myanmar is continuously overseeing and conducting inspections to ensure that the food is of good quality and safe for public consumption. —TWA/GNLM