Vietnam’s instant noodles will be moved to Appendix I and will not be required to have a food safety inspection certificate issued by any relevant authority.
On June 7, the European Commission published Regulation (EU) 2023/1110 amending Regulation 2019/1973 on emergency control measures for food exported to the Union.
Accordingly, the EU has moved instant noodle products made in Vietnam from Annex II (controlled by food safety certificates and border inspection) to Annex I (with a border inspection frequency of 20%).
The new regulation will officially come into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal. Therefore, as of June 27, 2023, Vietnamese instant noodles exported to the EU are no longer required to be accompanied by a certificate of food safety inspection issued by a competent authority.
Six months after the EU approved emergency control regulations for Vietnamese vermicelli, vermicelli and noodles (effective January 1, 2022), Vietnam has persuaded the EU to remove vermicelli and rice products from the food safety management list. 18 months later it was the turn of instant noodles, which the EU approved for removal from Annex II.
This is the effort of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and related ministries, departments and agencies in controlling food safety and helping enterprises solve difficulties.
However, maintaining EU control of instant noodles at the border crossing with a frequency of 20% requires Vietnamese administrative authorities and companies to ensure strict food safety control, thus avoiding the case that occurred with dragon fruit: after a series of violations, they are returned to Annex II.
With the exception of instant noodles, other Vietnamese products exported to the EU remained unchanged from the regulations six months ago. For agricultural products, okra and dragon fruit are listed in Appendix II, with inspection frequencies of 50% and 20%, respectively.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends that Vietnamese instant noodle manufacturers and exporters continue to control food safety while also considering the use of voluntary measures such as self-testing in reputable laboratories for shipments to the EU.
The EU notification can be found HERE.