Do you need a special license?
The short answer: you do not need a national certificate or professional license to sell health functional foods (Korea's regulated supplement category) in Korea. What the law requires is not a license but business registration (영업신고) and completion of hygiene training. In other words, once you register with the local authority and complete the training as required, an individual or a company can start a health functional food sales business. This applies to anyone selling in Korea, including foreign residents running a business there.
The steps: hygiene training and registration
The first step is food hygiene training. You must complete 2 hours for general sales (일반판매업) or 4 hours for distribution-specialist sales (유통전문판매업) in advance, and you can take it online through an accredited training provider. On completion you receive a hygiene training certificate, which you take to your local city, county, or district office (public health center) to register your business.
| Business type | New-operator training (before registering) | Refresher training (while operating) |
|---|---|---|
| General sales (일반판매업) | 2 hours | 2 hours every year |
| Distribution-specialist sales (유통전문판매업) | 4 hours | 2 hours every year |
| Manufacturing (for reference) | 8 hours | Check with the local authority |
Once you are operating, each business location must complete refresher training every year, and skipping it can lead to a fine. Check training hours and exceptions (such as recent training for the same business type) with your local public health center.
When no registration is needed: pharmacies
Under Korea's Health Functional Foods Act, pharmacies can sell health functional foods without a separate sales registration. Hospitals are not exempt.
General sales vs. distribution-specialist sales
Selling directly to consumers in a store or door to door counts as general sales. If you sell by visits, phone, multi-level marketing, or e-commerce, you can register even without a separate store, using your home as the office. In contrast, planning your own-brand products, having them contract-manufactured, and distributing them (for example, through an online store) is classed as distribution-specialist sales. This additionally requires an independent business premises, a hygienic storage facility such as a warehouse, and a contract manufacturing agreement with the producer.
Documents and fees for registration
To register, you need a business registration form, the hygiene training certificate, the lease for your premises, and ID. For distribution-specialist sales, you must also submit the contract manufacturing agreement and a storage facility agreement. Companies also need a certified copy of the corporate register and a corporate seal certificate. The registration fee is generally around KRW 28,000 and processing usually takes about 3 days, but the exact documents and license tax can vary by region, so check with your local public health center in advance.
Does repackaging or personalized sales require a legal manager?
Selling "personalized health functional foods," where several products are divided or combined for an individual customer rather than sold as finished packs, became a separate registered business in 2025: personalized health functional food sales (맞춤형건강기능식품판매업). Each location must appoint a personalized health functional food manager (맞춤형건강기능식품관리사), who must hold a license as a doctor, dentist, Korean medicine doctor, nurse, pharmacist, herbal pharmacist, or dietitian and complete regular safety and hygiene training. Pharmacies that want to sell personalized products must also appoint one.
Is the "health functional food manager" certificate a national qualification?
Search online for a "health functional food certificate" and you will find several, but most are private certificates run by industry associations, not nationally recognized qualifications. Despite the similar name, they are entirely different from the legal "personalized health functional food manager" above; a private certificate alone does not qualify you for that role. Holding one does not exempt you from registration or confer any special legal benefit, so treat it at most as a way to show product knowledge or expertise. You can check a certificate's exact status and issuing body on Korea's Private Qualification Information Service or the issuer's website.
Please keep in mind
- This article is based on information checked as of the date shown at the top. New research or changes in official guidelines may change the details, so please use it as a reference rather than taking it as definitive.
- Details such as schedules, rules, and costs can change, so confirm them with the organizers or the relevant agencies before you decide. For any health-related decision, please see a doctor in person.