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Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority Alerts Importers on Compliance with GB Regulations for Food and Feed from China

 

Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority (SCPHA) is the enforcement authority for safety and hygiene import controls over commercial consignments of food and feed arriving at Felixstowe and Harwich.  SCPHA is aware that there are some importers of food and feed products from China which do not appear to appreciate the full extent of the prohibitions imposed by assimilated Commission Decision 2002/994/EC.  While SCPHA cannot comment as to individual commercially confidential consignments, the statement set out below may assist importers in avoiding commissioning the supply of non-compliant consignments which have to be refused entry into the country.

Under that Commission Decision, food and feed containing animal-origin ingredients cannot be imported unless all the animal-origin ingredients are ones listed in the Annex to the Decision.  If that was not plain from the wording of the Decision itself, it has been clear since at least 22/04/21 when article 6(4) of assimilated Commission Regulation (EC) No.853/2004 finally came into full effect (there had previously been a series of temporary derogations), unambiguously requiring that food containing one or more plant ingredients as well as one or more animal product ingredient does, as to each animal product ingredient, comply with any requirement applicable to that animal product ingredient were it imported on its own.

It follows that, if a product contains an animal ingredient element, that product must not be imported from China unless that element is included in the Annex to the Decision.  It matters not that the product might for other purposes also be classified in other terms, for example as a processed product of animal origin or as a composite product.

SCPHA acknowledges that some composite products in particular, by operation of assimilated Commission Decision 2007/275/EC article 6, will be exempted from official controls.  For the avoidance of doubt, that relieves the importer of having to import the product at a point of entry covered by a Border Control Post, to notify the arrival of the consignment on DEFRA’s Imports of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS) website, to fill in Part I of a Common Health Entry Document (CHED), to supply any health certificates or to pay any fee.  It does not relieve the consignment of the effects of the prohibition in Commission Decision 2002/994/EC.

SCPHA further acknowledges that there are other requirements in other legislation in relation to particular types of food with which an importer may also need to ensure the consignment is in compliance.  There are, for example, heat treatment requirements in assimilated Commission Regulation (EU) No.605/2010 to combat against dairy products carrying certain viruses and bacteria.  Those are different and cumulative requirements to Commission Decision 2002/994/EC, which sets prohibitions and allows exemptions primarily with an eye to chemical residues and contaminants which may be introduced by production or manufacturing processes in China in sectors which are not regulated to an agreed standard there.  The proposition, for example, that a product contains a dairy ingredient which has undergone heat treatment to make it compliant with Commission Regulation (EU) No.605/2010, and thus that it need not comply also with Commission Decision 2002/994/EC, is as unsustainable as a motorist claiming that, because he was travelling within the speed limit, it was perfectly in order for him to be driving a vehicle with bald tyres.

Importers are further reminded that the prohibition imposed by Commission Decision 2002/994/EC applies to relevant food and feed imported from China.  It matters not that the Chinese consignor or manufacturer claims that any animal-origin ingredients in fact originated from some other country.  The legislation gives no discretion for any enforcement authority to allow into the UK a non-compliant consignment imported from China, even where the importer tenders evidence that the consignment is allegedly ‘safe’, and even where the amount of animal-origin ingredient is small in relation to the totality of the product.

Further information as to importing goods may be found on the SCPHA website.  Importers are also referred to DEFRA’s Import Information Note GEN/2, paragraph 12 of which addresses the issue of composites imported from China: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-information-for-imports-of-products-of-animal-origin-poao-for-human-consumption-iin-gen2/general-information-for-imports-of-products-of-animal-origin-poao-for-human-consumption-import-information-note-iin-gen2.

Importers and their agents are reminded that consignments which are not compliant with Commission Decision 2002/994/EC are likely to need to be re-dispatched within a strict time limit and, if that is not achieved, likely to have to be destroyed.  The costs of intervention as to a non-compliant consignment, including its storage pending investigation, its re-dispatch or destruction, and any officer time or legal costs incurred in reaching that end result, are liable to fall upon the operator responsible for the consignment.

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