To import food products from India to the USA, you register with the Food and Drug Administration through your facility and entry process, run a foreign supplier verification programme, and file prior notice for each shipment. To import food from India to the UK, you work under UK food law, with checks at the border that depend on the product and on current risk lists.
Both systems put legal responsibility on the importer, not on the Indian supplier. The supplier supplies evidence. You decide whether it is enough.
How to import food from India to the USA
The steps run in this order. Confirm your product is a food, and not a drug or a cosmetic by its claims. Check that the Indian plant is registered with FDA, as covered in what facility registration means for your supplier. Set up your foreign supplier verification, explained in the FSVP rule for US importers. File prior notice before the goods arrive, and have your customs broker enter the shipment.
FDA can detain a shipment at the border, test it, or refuse entry. Detention often happens because the importer cannot show the verification record. Keep it ready before the container sails.
How to import food from India to the UK
The UK has its own rules since leaving the EU, and they differ between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain follows UK-retained and now UK-made law, with requirements set by the Food Standards Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Plant-based foods can face phytosanitary checks, and some products from India are on lists with extra controls. These lists change, so check the official government pages on the day you book.
Labelling must meet UK rules, not Indian ones. See labelling rules for spice blends in the UK, EU and US. A food business operator in the UK must be able to trace a product one step back and one step forward.
How to import ashwagandha into the USA
Ashwagandha root powder sold as a supplement ingredient is regulated under the US rules for dietary supplements, not only as a general food. The importer or the brand owner must make sure the ingredient is lawful for the intended use, the label claims are permitted, and the manufacturing meets the regime that applies. We do not advise on claims. Read the rules for selling botanicals as supplements in the US and take advice from a regulatory specialist.
At raw-ingredient level, your own job is to source a lot that matches the specification, has been tested for identity, contaminants and microbes, and arrives with a traceable record.
What to ask your supplier in both markets
Ask for the plant's food safety certificate and audit report, a certificate of analysis for each lot, a statement of origin, and lot traceability. Have an independent lab confirm the main results. Reading a lab certificate shows what to look at. Duty depends on the HS code, so ask your broker for the current rate in each country. Costs also depend on freight, testing and packing.
Next step
We find and audit suppliers who can supply the records US and UK importers need, and check samples and loading. Book a free sourcing review.