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Official controls are in place under UK law to make sure imported products meet GB standards for animal and public health.
Imports are checked at border control posts approved to handle each type of product. Felixstowe and Harwich are approved to inspect imports of animal products for human consumption, feed and technical uses.
We follow a rigorous process which includes document checks and product examinations to establish the safety of imported products and we charge a fee for the service payable by the person responsible for the load.
There are inspection facilities at Felixstowe and Harwich for refrigerated and ambient products for human consumption and animal by-products but please note that while Harwich BCP is approved for chilled animal by-products, Felixstowe BCP is not
The facilities are approved by DEFRA and regularly audited by the Animal and Plant Health Agency to ensure standards are maintained.
The border control post facilities at Felixstowe are owned and operated by the Port of Felixstowe which presents consignments there, on behalf of the person responsible for the load, for Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority to examine. At Harwich the BCP facilities are owned and operated by Harwich International Port.
Retained Reg. (EU) 2019/2007 lists the animal products that are subject to official border controls and includes products such as:
Composite products which are subject to checks are listed in Commission Decision 2007/275 The rules about composite products (products for human consumption consisting of processed product of animal origin combined with plant material) can be complex. Further guidance on the legislation and import conditions is available under Composites.
Import conditions for most animal products can be found here: Import Information Notes – GOV.UK
For fishery products for human consumption please see Importing fishery products or bivalve molluscs | Food Standards Agency
Products can be imported only from countries appearing on lists published by DEFRA – see Exporting to Great Britain: approved countries for animals and animal products – GOV.UK.
In addition, some products are subject to additional requirements under other legislation on top of any prohibitions or conditions imposed under those country lists. For example, imports from China of animal origin food products and feed products are strictly limited to certain types of food and feed, as set out in Commission Decision 2002/994/EC https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2002/994. If you are unsure about whether any further controls apply to products from the countries from which your product is being imported or from which it originated, please contact us for guidance in advance.
Products must also originate from approved or registered premises. Where the import conditions require the product to be imported from an approved establishment, they must come from a premises listed here Establishments approved to export animals and animal products to Great Britain – data.gov.uk. Please note that where there is a date listed in column I ‘Date of request’, only product produced and certified on or after that date can be imported. There is no similar list for premises which have only to be registered e.g. honey establishments.
Most consignments must be accompanied by a health certificate in accordance with the published model certificate and must comply with the conditions and legislation detailed in the certificate: Model health certificates for exports of live animals and animal products to Great Britain – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Consignments of animal product subject to official border controls may not be removed from the border control post until all official border controls have been completed, the required fees paid and a CHEDP authorising import or transit has been issued.
Approval of BCPs
The BCP at which consignments intended for import into or transit across GB arrive must be approved to handle the products concerned. The list of BCPs can be found here: UK border control posts: animal and animal product imports – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Please note that Felixstowe is not approved to handle chilled animal by-products and such consignments intended for import or transit must not be landed at Felixstowe. Harwich is approved for packaged products only. This means that Harwich is not approved for hanging meat.
Requirements for CHED-Ps
In accordance with Reg. (EU) 2019/1013, the person responsible for the load must notify the authority responsible for the BCP at least one working day before the expected arrival of the consignment of products of animal origin and animal by-products listed in Regulation (EU) 2019/2007 or, in the case of composite products, those subject to official border controls in accordance with Decision 2007/275, which are intended for import into or transit across GB.
Notification must be by completion of a CHED-P in IPAFFS. IPAFFS Import of products, animals, food and feed system (IPAFFS) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) is an IT platform operated by DEFRA that must be used to generate the CHED-P. Guidance notes on how to complete the CHED-P in IPAFFS can be found here.
Please double-check your CHED-Ps are fully and accurately completed. Arranging for amendments to be made is time-consuming and causes delay to your consignment and others.
Keeping your IPAFFS login confidential
When signing up to the IPAFFS system, you agree to keep your personal login details confidential and this requirement must be respected.
Legal obligations
The CHED-P as completed by the person responsible for the load in IPAFFS is a legal declaration. As the person responsible for the load, when you submit the CHED-P for certification in IPAFFS you are confirming that:
I, the undersigned operator responsible for the consignment detailed above, certify that to the best of my knowledge and belief the statements made in Part I of this document are true and complete, and I agree to comply with the requirements of retained Regulation 2017/625 on official controls, including payment for official controls, as well as for re-dispatching consignments, quarantine or isolation of consignments, or costs of destruction and disposal where necessary.
As an individual signing such a statement in IPAFFS, you must ensure you know how these liabilities will be covered by you or your employer as applicable, and that you or your company have the necessary contractual arrangements, or insurance, to recover such costs from the person or company instructing you as applicable. In particular, costs of destruction can be considerable. The destruction of a high-risk container under official supervision can amount to tens of thousands of pounds.
Submission of CHED-P and required documents
Only UK entities may complete CHEDs on IPAFFS. For companies, this means the company must be registered on the Companies House website. The declaration in IPAFFS is the legal declaration and a signed paper CHED is not required to be submitted. However, the required documents must be submitted to Port Health before we can start our checks. Depending on the import conditions, the required documents may include an original health certificate, mandatory test reports in some cases or the statutory ‘commercial document’ required for certain animal by-products. In addition to these original documents, we also require a copy of the bill of lading or CMR and commercial invoice, as well as a copy of the packing list.
Risk category
You must declare the correct risk category for your products. Further detail can be found here:
EU: Check risk categories for animals and animal products imported from the EU to Great Britain – GOV.UK
For medium and high risk products we require one CHED per health certificate
Low risk products:
For low-risk products we require a minimum of one CHED per commercial document e.g. per invoice or packing list, as long as they are being conveyed by the same means of transport. The commercial documents must include the following information:
| Identify the premises of origin of the consignment |
| Identify the premises of destination of the consignment |
| Contain a description of the products |
| Contain details of the quantity of the products (i.e. number and type of packages, net and gross weights) |
For low-risk products of animal origin and animal by-products, the premises of origin of the products, must be declared on the CHED. In the case of products for human consumption this would be the establishment detailed on the identification mark on the product)
For composite products made with previously processed products of animal origin, the establishment can be entered as ‘not found’ as composite products made with previously processed products of animal origin do not need to be made in listed establishments
For consignments with multiple CHEDs it would speed clearance if you can include an annotated packing list or a spreadsheet indicating which products are covered by which CHEDs
Where there are multiple lines of product being imported on one CHED it would also speed clearance if you can upload a packing list as a searchable excel spreadsheet including CN codes, a description in English and each products risk category.
Copy health certificates
If you require an authenticated copy of the health certificate, statutory test report or statutory commercial document for your records, then you should submit a photocopy of the document when you submit the original document. The photocopy needs to be an accurate copy of the original and be double or single-sided as per the original. If these requirements are met, the photocopy will be authenticated and returned to you. If these requirements are not met, the photocopy will be kept on file and not returned.
Release of consignments
Part II of the CHED-P is completed by BCP staff in IPAFFS when all of our checks have been completed, indicating the checks carried out, the outcome of those checks and the seal applied to the container / trailer where applicable.
Legal requirement to deliver goods to the destination declared on the CHED-P
It is an offence to deliver the consignment to a delivery address other than that declared on the CHED-P. If for any reason the delivery address has to change after the CHED-P is issued, you must notify us so we can make a record of this for traceability purposes.
All animal origin imports covered by official controls at the border are subjected to a documentary check, including an assessment of the CHED-P in IPAFFS, public and animal health certification and accompanying commercial documents which may include bill of lading or CMR, invoice and packing list.
Consignments may also be subject to an identity check which involves verification that the product, identification marks, stamps and other necessary product and package information conform to the declaration on the health certificates and GB legislation.
A percentage of consignments must also be physically checked to see that the product remains fit for its intended purpose. The physical check may include sampling the product to look for pathogenic micro-organisms or contaminants such as residues of veterinary drugs or heavy metals.
From time to time, border control posts may be instructed to vary the rate of checking and type of sampling because of known problems in the exporting country.
The level of physical checks is laid down in the DEFRA risk categorisation websites detailed above and varies between 1 % and 30% depending on the product type. For certain products where there is a known health risk DEFRA may prescribe a higher level of checking which may include compulsory sampling.
On satisfactory completion of the official controls at the BCP, consignments may be released for import into Great Britain or for transit.
Products failing to satisfy import conditions may be re-dispatched to a country outside Great Britain subject to our agreement.
If the consignment is deemed to be a risk to human or animal health, or where the person responsible for the consignment fails to comply with a direction to re-dispatch, it must instead be sent for destruction.
All costs for destruction are to be met by the person responsible for the consignment.
Where, following official controls on a product, a notice is served requiring that product to be re-dispatched or destroyed, an appeal may usually be brought to a Magistrates Court. This right must be exercised within one month of the date the notice was served.
Judicial Review is still the only form of redress available for some enforcement notices under the Regulations. On receipt of a notice, recipients are advised to contact their legal advisers if they wish to appeal against the notice.
A standard minimum charge is levied which is set out in legislation. Where the cost to the authority of administering the official controls is higher, the legislation provides that the actual cost can be levied. Further charges for laboratory examination or analysis may also be levied. Please refer to our schedule of charges.
The responsibility for enforcing the controls in relation to illegal imports at ports is assigned to Border Force. Local Authorities are responsible for this activity inland only where goods have been Customs cleared.
Personal Imports
Details of the rules on personal imports for products of animal origin on GOV.UK.
Legislation
The Trade in Animals and Related Products Regulations 2011 SI 2011 No. 1197
General Information
DEFRA are the lead department for the policy and legislation for animal products imports and transits. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) look after the delivery of the official controls checks at Border Control Posts.
Advice and guidance on importing and exporting animal products can be found on GOV.UK. In particular, detailed product import conditions can be found in the ‘Import Information Notes’ link Animal products not for human Animal products or by-products not for human consumption: Import Information Notes – GOV.UK The FSA website is a good source of information on imported food for both commercial and personal imports.
We know how difficult it can be to select the find the correct IPAFFS to match the scientific names on the health certificate. To help you get this right we have developed a search tool to assist.
The search tool is linked to a database of fish species. Although it covers over 2000 species, it is not an exhaustive list. If you are searching for a species that you know will be imported through Felixstowe and cannot find it in our database, please email technical.poao@scpha.gov.uk for advice.
| Latin Name | Common Name | Family | IPAFFS Entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| {{fish['Latin Name']}} | {{fish['Common Name']}} | {{fish['Family']}} | {{fish['TRACES Entry']}} |
