Food businesses, traders, consumers, and travellers who want to import, export, or tranship food and food products should identify the appropriate classification of their food or food products. This is an important step, as each category of food and food products has to comply with a specific set of rules for the purposes of importing, exporting or transhipping.

For example, if a business intends to import frozen pizzas, they have to classify the type of pizza appropriately, depending on the ingredients used. A pizza with meat toppings is classified as Meat & Meat Products while a pizza with cheese toppings is classified as Processed Food.

There are 7 categories of food or food products listed in the Classification of Food and Food Products. When applying for your import permits you will need to enter both the Harmonised System (HS) Code and the Competent Authority product code assigned by SFA for controlled goods. The HS Code is an international nomenclature developed by the World Customs Organisation (WCO), for the classification of goods and is harmonized at 6-digit level for use by all WCO member countries. Singapore adopts the 8-digit level HS Codes in the ASEAN Harmonised Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN), which is based on the WCO 6-digit level HS Codes, for use by all ASEAN member countries. To search and determine the appropriate HS/Product Codes for your food products, you may refer to the Singapore Custom Harmonised System (HS) Codes search tool.