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Import notifications - European Union

The EU border control posts

In the European Union, there are 297 Border Control Posts (BCPs), operated by National Authorities, most of them located in airports, roads and ports. Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and France have the largest number of BCPs.

At BCPs, there are three main types of veterinary checks on all consignments:

  • Documentary: Documentary checks are carried out on all consignments. These involve checking that the appropriate veterinary documentation (CVED) exists and has been completed in a proper way;

  • Identity: Every consignment is subject to an identity check to verify that it matches what is described in the documentation. Authorities also review the health mark, which typically identifies the country of origin and company identity;

  • Physical: In principle, a physical check is required on all consignments. However, for the majority of products where import rules are fully harmonized, a physical check is carried out only on a percentage of consignments, which varies according to the product category and risk. The physical check may also involve taking samples for laboratory tests.

The EU has one of the highest food safety standards in the world, largely due to the serious EU legislation in force - the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is a key tool to ensure the proper flow of information across borders when public health risks are detected.Whenever a member of this network has any information relating to the existence of a serious risk to human health, this information is immediately notified under RASFF.

Seafood, like all other food or feed, can be subject to:
Alerts: A notification of a risk that requires rapid action. The product subject to an alert must be withdrawn or recalled from the market;
Border rejection: A notification about a product that was refused entry into the market for reasons relating to a serious risk to human health. Food can also be subject to information for attention or information for follow-up. These are both notifications that do not require rapid action either because the risk is not considered serious or the product is not on the market at the moment of the notification.

This review analyzed only alerts and border rejections, as these are the notifications that have a strong impact on public health

The RASFF portal provides a variety of information on products.
As shown in the examples below, it is possible to know the following information through the RASFF portal

  • The classification of the notifications
  • The date of the case
  • The notifying country
  • The subject (i.e. “mercury in chilled swordfish steaks coming from Spain”)
  • The product category
  • The product type
  • The risk decision

If other details are needed, it is possible to extract information related to:

  • The action taken
  • The distribution status
  • The hazard
  • The category
  • The analytical result
  • The sampling date

The benefits of the information provided through RASFF are especially relevant for:
Importers: RASFF allows them to take advantage of the information about global imports/exports and thus prevent future detentions; and
Consumers: RASFF ensures consumer the security of traceability and provides them information about the most frequent risks.

You can visit also the multilingual RASFF consumers portal at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/consumers/

Relevant documents