Silver Spring, MD—The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will open the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP) application portal for fiscal year 2023 on Jan. 1, 2022, the agency announced Wednesday.
For food importers interested in applying for VQIP benefits during fiscal 2023, the application portal will close on May 31, 2022.
The VQIP is a voluntary feebased program that provides expedited review and import entry of human and animal foods into the US for participating importers. Those importers are able to import their products to the US with greater speed and predictability, avoiding unexpected delays at the point of import entry, FDA noted.
Under the VQIP, FDA uses its Predictive Risk-based Evaluation for Dynamic Import Compliance Targeting (PREDICT) import screening tool to recognize food shipments that are part of an approved VQIP application. The screening tool is programmed to recognize and, in most cases, immediately release the shipment, unless examination and sampling are necessary for public health reasons.
To participate in VQIP, importers must meet certain eligibility requirements, including ensuring that the facilities of their foreign suppliers are certified through FDA’s Accredited Third-Party Certification Program. Certification bodies conduct food safety audits of foreign facilities and farms, and issue the certifications that importers need to participate in VQIP.
Annual user fees to participate in VQIP cover FDA’s costs for administering the program. These include the costs of reviewing applications; the costs of conducting inspections of importers (both foreign and domestic) accepted into the program; and the annual information technology (IT) maintenance costs.
The user fee rates are calculated each fiscal year and are posted in a Federal Register notice on or before August 1 each year. For fiscal 2022, the VQIP user fee is $15,938.
Questions about the VQIP may be submitted to the VQIP Importers’ Help Desk, at (301)-796-8745; or via email to [email protected].
VQIP supports the FDA Strategy for the Safety of Imported Food by incentivizing importers to use certified suppliers and robust processes and procedures to help ensure imported food is meeting US food safety requirements.
