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  5. Importing Food Products into the United States
  6. Filing Prior Notice of Imported Foods
  1. Importing Food Products into the United States

Filing Prior Notice of Imported Foods

Prior Notice must be provided for all food for humans and animals that is imported or offered for import into the United States (Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR), Part 1, Subpart I). Prior notice can be provided in one of two ways:

  • The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP, formerly the U.S. Customs Service) modified the Automated Broker Interface of the Automated Commercial Environment(ABI/ACE) to allow prior notice to be submitted to FDA through the existing interface between CBP and FDA.
  • The Prior Notice System Interface (PNSI) is available to individuals or companies who cannot, or choose not to, file through CBP. PNSI submissions are expected to include prior notice for shipments through international mail; In-Bond entries or admissions into FTZ by carriers or others who do not need to make a full CBP entry at the time of filing the prior notice; filers or brokers who need to file CBP entries at a time the ACE/OASIS interface is not available, and others who simply prefer to use an interactive system.

Overview and Background of Prior Notice of Imported Foods

Getting Started with the Prior Notice System Interface (PNSI)

About PNSI Version 14.0.00

Release Date: August 24, 2019

Version v14.0.0 of the PNSI is a change related to the completion of web entries. The application has been updated to require that the Web Entry is completed before a user's Prior Notices are submitted. The system no longer automatically completes web entries when the Prior Notice submission timeframe elapses. After creating a Prior Notice, users will be given the option to save their Prior Notice or cancel their Prior Notice rather than to submit their Prior Notice. All Prior Notices must be created and saved before submitting the Web Entry. Once the Web Entry is submitted, it will be closed and the user will not have the ability to add additional Prior Notices to their Web Entry.

In addition, users will no longer have the ability to cancel individual Prior Notices once a Web Entry is completed. Users will have to cancel the entire Web Entry to cancel a Prior Notice. Any Prior Notices that the user did not wish to cancel can be copied and re-filed on a new Web Entry.

Previous Versions of the PNSI

 
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