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  1. Exporting Food Products from the United States

For certain exported food products, some foreign food safety authorities require certification in the form of publicly available lists of establishments eligible for export. Industry may apply for inclusion on these lists via the Export Listing Module (ELM). Please visit Online Applications for Export Lists for a link to this electronic system and step-by-step instructions. The importing authorities' criteria for inclusion on these lists vary depending on the product or the destination. More information on requirements for specific lists is available at the links below.

To ensure that the export lists are kept up to date, every two years, the ELM will notify currently-listed establishments that they must update and resubmit their ELM application to verify their listing information and indicate that they wish to continue being listed. Establishments that do not update and resubmit their ELM applications every two years will be removed from the lists.

Industry may request to be listed via the ELM at any time and FDA processes ELM applications on a rolling basis. However, please note that FDA generally transmits updates to these lists on a quarterly basis and final listing decisions are made by the competent authorities of the importing countries/regions. Products produced or shipped prior to an establishment's official listing by the importing authority may be detained or rejected.

Please note that a complete application must be received in the ELM by the deadlines below to be considered for the respective quarterly update:

Quarterly Update Timeline
Quarter Deadline for Applications from Industry
1 March 31
2 June 30
3 September 30
4 December 31

IMPORTANT: FDA has no control of when updated lists are published by importing authorities. It often takes 6 weeks between the day FDA sends a request and the day a list is updated. The importing authorities that require these lists do not notify FDA when the lists are updated. U.S. firms may monitor the links below to watch for updates to these lists:

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