Imported Food Overseas Factory Registration Documents to Be Reviewed Using AI Technology

The registration process for overseas manufacturers producing, manufacturing, processing, handling, packaging, and storing imported agricultural and marine products, processed foods, health functional foods, food additives, and equipment/containers will be simplified.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that it will operate the "Automated Document Review System for Registration of Overseas Food Manufacturers" applying digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) starting from the 17th.

Since 2016, those intending to import food products (excluding livestock products) into Korea or those who establish and operate overseas manufacturing sites have been required to register the name, location, production site, and product items of the overseas manufacturer before import declaration. As of last year, there were approximately 51,000 such sites.

The new system reviews basic information such as applicant details and the location of overseas manufacturers by utilizing AI machine learning-based Optical Character Recognition (AI-OCR) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies, which were previously reviewed manually by civil service officers. It automatically translates and compares multilingual documents such as export country government certificates to verify the consistency of application information and check for duplicate manufacturers. AI-OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts text from documents or image files into readable text, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a technology where software robots perform repetitive and rule-based tasks previously done by humans.

Additionally, the system converts the addresses of overseas manufacturers into latitude and longitude coordinates to verify accurate location information via map applications (Google Maps). This enables rapid identification of manufacturers located in risk areas such as those affected by food-related accidents, diseases, or disasters, which can be reflected in import food inspections.

The Ministry expects that this system will reduce the processing time of approximately 40,000 annual civil complaints from the current three days to one day. It also anticipates minimizing errors in overseas manufacturer registration information and shortening complaint processing times, enabling accurate and efficient safety management of imported foods.

An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "We will continue to promote innovation in imported food safety management by utilizing various digital technologies and do our best to create an environment where the public can consume imported foods with confidence."