Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an important notice: "Effective July 24, 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will no longer accept the use of the business identification code "UNK" in the business number field. As a result, FSVP importers will be required to ensure that the valid 9-digit Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) code for food suppliers to the US is entered in the business number field.
What is DUNS?
It is derived from a unique 9-digit global coding system called DUNS, which is the equivalent of a business identification number (like a personal ID card) and is widely used for corporate identification and the organisation and collation of business information. It helps to identify and quickly locate the information of 400 million companies worldwide.
Previously, the US FDA required that food companies provide a Unique Firm Identifier (UFI) as a requirement for their FDA registration. To date, the Dun & Bradstreet code is the only UFI code recognised by the FDA. In the past few years, the FDA has temporarily accepted the UFI code "UNK" (unknown) in order to allow time for companies to apply for and obtain a Dun & Bradstreet code. However, this time it is clear that from 24 July only the DUNS code will be recognised and the UNK will no longer be recognised.
FDA understands that DUNS numbers continue to be difficult for some to obtain and FDA now intends to give registrants additional time until the end of the next registration cycle on December 31, 2022, to submit DUNS numbers as part of the UFI requirements. This will help avoid unnecessary registration cancellations due to any difficulties registrants may experience in obtaining a valid DUNS number; and allow FDA to maintain the integrity of its food facility inventory. In the interim, FDA intends to continue to allow registrants to enter "pending" in the UFI field of their registration if they have not already obtained a DUNS number. FDA also does not intend to cancel the registration of any facility with a currently unverifiable UFI.
