From June 27, 2023, instant noodles exported from Vietnam to the EU will not be required with food safety inspection certificates issued by the competent authority of Vietnam.
The Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU said that on June 7, 2023, the EU published Regulation (EU) 2023/1110 signed on June 6, 2023, amending Regulation 2019/1973 on emergency measures to control food exports to the EU.
Accordingly, the EU has officially moved Vietnam’s instant noodles from Appendix II (control by food safety certificate and border control) to Appendix I with a border inspection frequency of 20%.
From June 27, 2023, instant noodle items exported from Vietnam will not be required with food safety inspection certificates issued by the competent authority of Vietnam.
EU loosens regulations on Vietnamese instant noodles from June 27, 2023.
Also according to this Regulation, peppers from Vietnam are still in Appendix I with an inspection frequency at the border gate of 50%. Okra and dragon fruit are still included in Appendix II with test frequencies of 50% and 20%, respectively. This means that there is no change in the regulations on agricultural items compared to the previous 6-month ones.
The regulation takes effect 20 days after the publication date.
Thus, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU, just 06 months after the EU passed the emergency control regulation for Vietnamese vermicelli and noodles (effective from January 1, 2022), Vietnam has persuaded the EU to remove rice products from the list of food safety management. And 18 months later we successfully bring instant noodles from Appendix II (control by certificates and at the border gate) to Appendix I (control at the border gate).
This has shown the great and timely effort of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in controlling food safety as well as actively supporting businesses to solve difficulties.
However, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU, the EU still maintains control at the border with a frequency of 20%. It requires Vietnam to always keep food safety control on instant noodles.
If in the last 06 months of 2023, Vietnam’s instant noodles exported to the EU have many violations of food safety regulations, the EU will increase the supervision to 50% at the border and then bring them back to Appendix II.
In case Vietnam’s instant noodles are returned to Appendix II (as in the case of dragon fruit), the process of persuading the EU to bring them to Appendix I will be much more difficult.
Therefore, the Vietnam Trade Office in Belgium and the EU requires Vietnamese instant noodle exporters to continuously control food safety. They can consider voluntary measures such as self-testing at reputable laboratories for instant noodle shipments exported to the EU./.