Changes

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has made a change to the BICON commodity case and standard permits for Food samples.

• Information has been added to the BICON commodity case advising importers of food samples for personal use to search the ingredients in BICON and determine if they can meet alternative conditions
• Addition of an information notice to the standard permits for Foods samples and Prawn samples advising importers that they need to nominate an appropriate Approved Arrangements (AA) site when lodging entries.

There have not been any changes to the import conditions.

Background:
There has been an increase in people attempting to use the import permits for food samples to import food for personal use. As the import conditions require the goods to be contained and used in AA sites most personal use importers cannot meet the import conditions. Importers of food for personal use are advised to search the ingredients in BICON to determine if they can meet the alternative conditions for personal use.

There have been issues in processing entries of goods being imported under food samples permits because the importer or their agent has not notified the department of the AA site they which to have their goods directed to. Importers and/or their agent are required to nominate an appropriate AA site when lodging entries. Failure to do so may result in delays in processing the entry.

Who does this notice affect:
Importers of food and/or prawn samples, Biosecurity Imports Support Team, Pathway Operations Cargo - Assessment and Inspections

Further information:
If you require any further information, or have questions about these changes, please contact the Biosecurity Imports Support Team on 1800 900 090 (prompt 1, then prompt 1) or email imports@aff.gov.au.