El Salvador Processed Food and Beverage Products

El Salvador approved a new Sanitary Technical Standard for food and prepackaged beverages, which allows additional options for the documents required to register the product. It allows U.S. exporters to send a Certificate of Free Sale or an Export Certificate or a Sanitary Certificate to their distributor in El Salvador, as part of the requirements to register the product in the country. Previously, only a Certificate of Free Sale was accepted by the Salvadoran government. 

The validity of a Certificate of Free Sale, Export Certificate or Sanitary Certificate will be the same as determined by the regulatory entity that issues the document in the country of origin of the product. In the case that a document doesn’t have an expiration date, the certificate will be valid for 2 years from the date of issuing. In addition, the Ministry of Health will accept certified copies of the certificates. 

Article 14 of the Sanitary Technical Standard also specifies the requirements to register food and beverage products classified as rick C.

The complete Sanitary Technical Standard is available in Spanish at the Ministry of Health website: http://asp.salud.gob.sv/regulacion/normas.asp. 

For more information, contact the U.S. Commercial Service Office in San Salvador at office.sansalvador@trade.gov.