GACC Registration

GACC (General Administration of Customs China) Registration is required for overseas food manufacturers/exporters wanting to export food products into China, verifying the manufacturing facility meets Chinese food safety requirements before customs clearance.

GACC administers China's overseas food facility registration regime under Decree 248, which came into effect in 2022 and consolidated what were previously scattered, product-specific registration routes into a single framework — the objective being to hold every overseas facility exporting food into China to a consistent, traceable food-safety standard before goods reach the border.

Registration under Decree 248 is generally facility-based: a manufacturing site is registered against the specific product categories it produces, and that registration then applies to all its China-bound shipments in those categories. Depending on the product risk category, registration is either handled through China's competent authority (for higher-risk categories like meat, dairy, and seafood) or via a self-registration/recommendation route coordinated with the exporting country's designated competent authority (for many lower-risk processed food categories).

Because China's requirements are administered independently of Indian regulatory bodies, the process typically runs alongside — not instead of — domestic certifications like APEDA, FSSAI, or Spice Board registration; GACC registration addresses market access into China specifically, while the domestic registrations remain necessary for export eligibility from the Indian side.