Alerts

The department is proposing to make changes to the import conditions for all animal based retorted goods for human consumption, excluding retorted:

• goods from New Zealand;
  

• fish products of the families Salmonidae, Plecoglossidae (including roe and caviar);
  

• plant products;
  

• snails; and
  

• goods containing less than 5 % meat. Less restrictive conditions remain available for these goods.
  

One of the key changes will be the inclusion of a permit exemption in the Biosecurity (Prohibited and Conditionally Non-prohibited Goods) Determination 2016. This means the requirement for an import permit will be removed. The goods will still have to meet Australia’s import conditions to manage biosecurity risks associated with the goods to an acceptable level.

The import conditions will continue to be available through the department’s Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON) at http://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/biconweb4.0.

The proposed import conditions will require the retorted (canned) goods be accompanied by a veterinary certificate issued by the Government Authority in the country of manufacture which states:

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

The product does not contain any bovine derived material (other than dairy ingredients) or
All bovine material (other than dairy ingredients) were sourced from animals born, raised and slaughtered in countries assigned a satisfactory BSE risk category by Australia.

[Country/ies must be listed on the certificate provided]

[The certificate must indicate the option that applies]

Scrapie

The product does not contain any ovine or caprine derived material (other than dairy ingredients) or
The ovine and caprine material does not include offal (and protein products derived from offal) from animals over 12 months of age which originated from countries or zones not considered free from scrapie.

[Offal includes skulls including brains, eyes, spinals cord, tonsils, thymus, spleen, distal ileum, proximal colon, lymph nodes, adrenal glands, pancreas, liver or bone marrow.]

[The certificate must indicate the option that applies]

Retort process

The product has been commercially retorted.

During the retort process the product was heated to a minimum core temperature of 100 °C and obtained an F0 value of at least 2.8.  

Retort container

The product is imported in the hermetically sealed container in which it was retorted.

The hermetically sealed container is stamped or embossed with a permanent mark with:
- the identification number of the manufacturing establishment; and
- the batch code

The department now invites comments from interested parties on the proposed conditions. Please provide any feedback or other information for consideration to ABIABImportConditionsReview@agriculture.gov.au by 1 August 2016.

It is expected these changes will take effect later this year.

An updated BICON alert will be released when these changes take effect.

This alert applies to the following goods: