Does pet toothpaste sent to Taiwan need food certification? Classification, tariff codes and dental chew quarantine

Duty rates for nine pet dental products

Import charges are calculated on the customs value (CIF = goods value + international freight + insurance): customs duty = customs value × duty rate; business tax = (customs value + customs duty) × 5%. Every rate in the table below comes from column I of our customs import tariff database and was checked code by code in September 2026.

Pet toothpaste and dentifrices themselves carry no import regulation code in the database, so for a personal-use import only the taxes matter. The column II preferential list for toothbrushes under 9603.21 includes CN (ECFA), so 0% may apply where the origin and certificate-of-origin conditions are met. Edible dental chews and dental treats are classified as cat and dog food, while rawhide bones made of animal hide have their own line, 4205.00.90.10-4; both carry B01 and are subject to the quarantine rules in section 4. Classification is decided by customs on the basis of the actual goods and their ingredients; click a tariff code to see the full record.

Four categories: food, pet food, accessories, veterinary drugs

The confusion over whether pet toothpaste needs food certification comes from the fact that four different kinds of product answer to completely different authorities. Put the item in the right box first and the rules become clear.

• ① Food for people, medicated toothpaste and cosmetics: the competent authority is the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and what it regulates is safety for human use. Pet toothpaste is used on animals, so it is not subject to inspection as human food or as a cosmetic, and it needs no “food certification”.
• ② Pet food: feed, treats and dental chews intended to be eaten by dogs and cats are governed by the Animal Protection Act and the related pet food rules, and those containing animal material also involve animal quarantine. Pet toothpaste is an oral cleaning product rather than something fed to the animal, so it does not belong here; dental chews do belong here.
• ③ General pet supplies: cleaning products, grooming products and implements, imported as ordinary goods with no special import regulation on the tariff line. Pet toothpaste for cleaning, toothbrushes and finger brushes belong here.
• ④ Veterinary drugs: products that contain drug ingredients and are intended to prevent or treat animal disease. The competent authority is the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, and imports must follow the Veterinary Drugs Control Act. Only oral products that land in this box require a permit.

In short: pet toothpaste for cleaning is category ③ and needs neither food certification nor a permit; dental chews are category ② and depend on quarantine; only products with therapeutic claims or drug ingredients are category ④. ⚠️ Annex 3 of the Ministry of Agriculture’s principles for pet food labelling adds one more line: “a product bearing the word toothpaste that also provides nutrition for the pet is a pet food” — so a “toothpaste” marketed as edible and nutritious is officially a pet food, not an accessory.

When a product becomes a veterinary drug

What decides the question is not the words “pet toothpaste” but the ingredients and the claims. Article 3 of the Veterinary Drugs Control Act defines veterinary drugs as biological preparations, antibiotics and diagnostic agents intended solely to prevent or treat animal disease, together with “drugs intended solely to prevent or treat animal disease or to promote or regulate physiological functions”. Once an oral cleaning product steps into that scope, it stops being an ordinary accessory and becomes a drug.

• Look at the claims: the Ministry of Agriculture’s principles for pet food labelling treat wording that “involves preventing, improving, alleviating or treating animal disease” as a medical claim that may not be used, while Annex 3 expressly allows dental products to use phrases such as “helps control plaque”, “helps control tartar” and “oral care”. Packaging that uses disease language such as “treats periodontal disease” or “kills bacteria and reduces inflammation” falls into medical claims and risks being examined as a drug; wording such as “cleans”, “helps control plaque” and “freshens breath” is cleaning language. The authorities have not stated in writing that “a claim to prevent periodontal disease makes a product a veterinary drug”; this is a risk warning.
• Look at the ingredients: oral gels and rinses containing antibacterial drug ingredients such as chlorhexidine gluconate mostly fall within the veterinary drug scope in Taiwan, whereas enzymatic toothpastes (glucose oxidase and the like) and toothpastes made only of abrasives and flavourings are cleaning products.
• The import rules for veterinary drugs contain no exception for personal use by post: import regulation 804 on the tariff line points to 406. Importing a veterinary drug requires a veterinary drug trading licence together with an import permit for veterinary drugs issued by the Ministry of Agriculture (samples and gifts additionally need a review notice from the inspection agency); goods that are not drugs must instead carry the declaration “this consignment is not a human medicine, a human medical device or a veterinary drug” in order to be exempt from those requirements. The text of the regulation contains no exemption for a personal-use consignment sent by post. The only proviso in Article 5 of the Veterinary Drugs Control Act covers drugs carried in by a traveller or by crew serving on a means of transport, for use on their own pets and within the published categories, dosage forms and quantities. Postal shipments are not covered, and a veterinary drug imported without approval counts as a banned veterinary drug. HowBridge does not handle permit applications.
• When in doubt, look it up: the inspection agency runs a public search system for veterinary drug permits where you can check whether an ingredient or a product already holds a Taiwanese permit. For a medicated product without a permit, consolidated shipping is not advisable even for personal use.

This section is compiled from the Veterinary Drugs Control Act and announcements by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency; the competent authority has the final say on how a product is classified. HowBridge does not handle veterinary drug permits, and goods received at the warehouse that are clearly unlicensed veterinary drugs will not be forwarded.

Dental chews are pet food: quarantine and postal limits

Many people order dental chews and dental treats together with toothpaste, but in the eyes of customs and quarantine they are entirely different things: a dental chew is “cat and dog food put up for retail sale”, so quarantine applies.

• Classified under 2309.10: cat and dog food put up for retail sale is 2309.10.00.00-2, column I duty 2%, with import regulations B01 (subject to quarantine) and MP1. B01 means “subject to quarantine”, not “prohibited”.
• Material from cloven-hoofed animals or birds means a quarantine-regulated article: rawhide bones, chicken strips and dental treats containing beef, pork or chicken all count as quarantine-regulated articles under the quarantine requirements for importing cat and dog food. Point 5 of those requirements deals specifically with “cat and dog food processed from the hide of cloven-hoofed animals or birds … for dogs and cats to chew”, and an import must be accompanied by the original animal quarantine certificate issued by the quarantine authority of the exporting country, a document a private online shopper cannot realistically obtain.
• Quarantine-regulated articles may not be imported by post: Article 34, Paragraph 3 of the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Diseases states that “quarantine-regulated articles may not be imported by postal delivery; where they are so imported, they shall be returned, confiscated or destroyed”, and a consignee who fails to hand them to the quarantine authority for destruction faces a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 under Article 45. This provision is the heart of the question whether a dental chew can be shipped home at all.
• Exceptions exempt from quarantine: purely plant-based dental treats (built on plant fibre or starch, for example) contain no animal material and need no animal quarantine declaration; exemptions also exist for pure fish-source formulas and for heat-sterilised canned products containing no bovine material. What decides it is the ingredient list, not the product name.
• The China route adds MP1: 2309.10 carries MP1 (mainland Chinese goods conditionally permitted for import, subject to the International Trade Administration’s “Consolidated table of items of mainland Chinese goods conditionally permitted for import and the applicable import regulations”). For 2309.10.00.00-2 that table currently opens only one item, dry dog food in beef flavour, so a dental treat coming through the Shenzhen warehouse has to be on the permitted list as well as clearing quarantine.

For the full quarantine requirements for cat and dog food, the penalties and the test for what can and cannot be shipped, see Importing pet food into Taiwan: quarantine, tariff codes and postal limits. HowBridge does not carry quarantine-regulated articles.

Human toothpaste, xylitol and VOHC

Beyond the customs rules, two things matter more than the duty rate when you are choosing a product: human toothpaste must not be used on dogs, and you need a way to tell which dental products have evidence behind them.

• Xylitol is toxic to dogs: many human toothpastes and chewing gums contain xylitol. The US FDA consumer update lists toothpaste among the products that contain it and notes that a dog may suffer acute hypoglycaemia within 10 to 60 minutes of ingestion because of a massive release of insulin, and it says plainly that pets should be given only pet toothpaste and never human toothpaste. Veterinary literature also records cases of acute liver failure in dogs after ingestion (Dunayer et al., 2006). Always use toothpaste made for pets when brushing an animal’s teeth.
• Fluoride toothpaste for people is unsuitable too: human toothpaste is designed to be rinsed out and spat, while a pet swallows it; human toothpaste with fluoride and foaming agents is not suitable for a pet to swallow over the long term.
• The VOHC seal: the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) in the United States grants its Seal of Acceptance to products that can demonstrate a reduction in plaque or tartar, the threshold being a reduction of at least 15% against the control group in each of two trials and at least 20% on average across the two, each result statistically significant. Its official site publishes the list of accepted products, covering toothpastes, dental chews and water additives for dogs and cats, and that list is a useful reference when choosing. VOHC acceptance certifies efficacy; it is not a Taiwanese import permit.
• Brushing is the main event: a randomised controlled trial in dogs (Harvey et al., 2015) found that brushing daily or every other day was significantly better at reducing plaque, tartar and gingivitis than brushing weekly or every other week; the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine likewise treats daily brushing as the core of home oral care, with dental chews and water additives as support. Whatever you buy is only worth having if it fits a brushing routine.
• Can toothpaste be brought back to Taiwan: this is a common search on this page. Ordinary human toothpaste (3306.10.10.90-2) carries 0% duty and no import regulation, so carrying it in or sending it by post for personal use is fine; medicated toothpaste (3306.10.10.10-9) carries 503 (importing a human medicine requires a pharmaceutical firm licence together with a drug permit issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, or a letter of consent from the ministry; a private individual sending a personal-use medicine by post must obtain the ministry’s approval in advance). The duty-free allowance for a traveller’s personal baggage is a customs value of NT$35,000.

The veterinary guidance in this section is drawn from public material published by the US FDA, the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) and the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine together with peer-reviewed papers. It is offered as buying guidance only and does not constitute veterinary medical advice; see a vet about oral disease in a pet.

The China route: MP1 and buying on Taobao

Buying pet toothpaste on Taobao or Tmall and sending it to Taiwan through the Shenzhen warehouse is unrestricted on most tariff lines; what deserves attention is the MP1 code and which line the goods actually fall under.

• Toothpaste, dentifrices and water additives: no import regulation: the toothpastes, dentifrices and mouthwashes under 3306.10 carry neither MW0, MP1 nor M88 in the database, so on the China route only the taxes apply (0% customs duty plus 5% business tax).
• “Other oral or dental hygiene preparations” carry MP1: the text of MP1 reads “mainland Chinese goods conditionally permitted for import; imports shall comply with the Consolidated table of items of mainland Chinese goods conditionally permitted for import and the applicable import regulations”. Where that table sets a special MXX requirement against a line, an import permit must be obtained from the International Trade Administration; where it sets none, the ordinary licensing rules apply. For 3306.90.00.00-6 the table currently opens only one item, dental floss picks (the EX marking means only the goods listed are open), so finger brushes, oral cleaning wipes and similar oral products that are neither toothpaste nor mouthwash fall outside the permitted list if they are classified on this line and imported from mainland China. Check the line before you order.
• A dental chew on the China route faces two gates, quarantine and MP1: 2309.10 carries both B01 and MP1 (the permitted list holds only dry dog food in beef flavour), and rawhide bones under 4205.00.90.10-4 carry B01; anything containing material from cloven-hoofed animals or birds may not go by post, and consolidated shipping cannot produce the original quarantine certificate either, so in practice it cannot be shipped home.
• Source and authenticity: pet toothpaste sold on Taobao under an international brand name may or may not come from an official brand channel, and there is no general answer. If customs finds the goods to be counterfeit, they are confiscated under Article 39-1 of the Customs Anti-Smuggling Act and a fine of up to 3 times the value of the goods may be imposed. A brand flagship store or a clearly authorised channel is the safer choice.

The test is a single sentence: look at the import regulation code on that product’s tariff line (B01 / MP1 / 804), not at what the product is called. Use our tariff code search to check before you buy.

How to go about buying pet dental products

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