Following the recent German outbreak of bovine foot & mouth disease, surveillance in English ports has increased. Unfortunately, all units with a generalized description, such as foodstuffs or general cargo, are being detained. To prevent as many holds as possible please ensure your goods descriptions are as specific as possible. This includes having your drivers indicate a clear goods description at check-in.
For customers using an EDI connection and shipping under GMR, please make your goods description in the booking details as specific as possible as well.
In case your unit does contain meat products and is put on hold, please send your commercial documents showing origin and commodity to the port health authorities, to speed up the release process.
You can contact the port health authorities via the following email addresses:
- Harwich: [email protected]
- Immingham: [email protected]
- Killingholme: [email protected]
Below is the guidance from Port Health:
Therefore, any trailer of Food Perishables, Dairy Products, Meat Products, or any other Food related will be detained. In order to review, we ‘ll need to see a copy of the Health Certificate and the following information detailed on one document (e.g. Excel spreadsheet, in English language format);
- Products name & description.
- Raw or Cooked.
- CN code.
- BTOM risk category.
- If CHEDPs were provided the corresponding CHEDP number.
- Health Certificate number.
Reminder when creating a CHEDP.
- The agent must be located in GB.
- The processing establishment’s must be declared in IPAFFS in box I.15 for all product except for composite products.
It should be emphasized, for consignments from EU the raw meat or products containing meat of poultry / pork/ ovine / caprine / bovine / venison / wild boar species, are subject to vet checks and therefore require health certificate for import or for transit.
For dairy products and composite products containing dairy ingredients originating in German, please provide a statement from the manufacturer of the dairy content, confirming the processing the dairy content has undergone since it was raw milk, specifically providing details of the starting pH of the milk, the heat treatment temperature applied and how long it was applied for.
For dairy products originating in EU except Germany please provide a description of the products and the relevant information (CN code, risk category, CHEDP for low risk or CHEDP and health certificate for medium risk).
For composite products containing meat from FMD species susceptible (pork/ ovine / caprine / bovine / venison / would boar), originating in Germany, please provide a statement from the manufacturer of the red meat product content confirming the meat product was made using meat that was defatted and deboned prior to cooking and also providing details of the heat treatment times and temperatures the meat product content has been cooked for.
For composite products with meat from EU, except Germany are low risk and will be dealt with as low risk products.
Please ensure that the CHED number, the trailer number, and our reference number are quoted on all correspondence. Your consignment will be detained pending receipt of all the information listed above and any dairy / meat statement(s) (if applicable).
Please note that it is the agent’s responsibility to provide information of the load, failure to do can result in the load being detained longer.
Further helpful information can be found on our website www.porthealth.uk or https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2010/605/article/4.