EU - Import Problems

Subject: EU - import problems
Author: Eric.Fleury@mail.doc.gov
Date: 11/30/1999

1997 was a record year with an average of at least 2 containers blocked a week. 1998 was pretty good as the beginning of 1999 (a French vet even called me to acknowledge our efforts) with only 10 problems. Unfortunately we are again on the wrong path. Since the beginning of November 99, I intervened in more than 30 cases. Few shipments have been rejected, but some were delayed by up to 2 weeks.

In few cases, everything has been done correctly, but the establishment was not yet on the up-dated list sent by FDA. However in most cases, the problem should have been avoided. Few simple steps would save a lot of money and headaches to exporters and importers.

1) Labels must be checked against information written on the certificates. Especially when goods were stored in a public coldstorage, further more when fish have been re-packed there, double-check labeling. Too often, there are 2 CFNs on the same cartons; or the CFN on the carton is the coldstorage number (this is right if they re-packed) but the certificate indicates a processing
plant (where goods were first processed). Too often, nobody is able to say exactly what is in the container, except the type of product !

2) For frozen fish, when a shipment includes goods from several processing establishments or different species, I suggest that at least one carton of each establishment/species is placed at the door of the container. This is to avoid unloading the container in a port when it should have been trucked to its final destination, just to find at least one carton of the other(s) establishment(s)/species.

3) When pre-printed boxes bearing all CFNs of the group are used, one must make sure that one CFN is marked.

4) Certificates must be fully completed. Do not forget one mention such as the temperature. Indicate all types of products included in the shipment (for ex., H&G and fillets). The name and address of the consignee must be indicated and it must be a company established within the EU.

5) When preparing labels or printed boxes, the CFN must be controlled: is there 7 digits?, is it the exact number? A very simple question, but it happened 3 times in the last month.

It has never been a problem for US authorities (FDA or NMFS) to issue a new certificate that supersedes a previous one. But it takes at least 3-4 days to have the new original delivered to European ports. That means demurrage, coldstorage fees, etc.

One more time, the most important labeling information are : country of origin approval number

Those two items must be written or printed "indelibly". The most desirable way would be to have them pre-printed on packages/cartons. In cases where stick-on labels may be used, they must not be easily destructible when attempts are made to remove them, i.e. tear into small pieces.

Until recently, not all Member States were fully implementing inspection requirements. Especially the identity check was not done as required by the EU legislation. Since September, ALL Member States inspectors check labels for the two mentions. Without those mentions, it is impossible to have goods cleared. All those shipments will have to be returned to the USA for re-labeling before
going back. It is not because some Member States did not enforced the EU legislation in the past, that it doesn't exist. On purpose, I never made any differences based on the actual enforcement by National authorities. Now the UK, Denmark, Germany, etc. do the same thing than France or Spain. The Netherlands and Belgium are now the more difficult.

Those two mentions (USA, CFN) must be on all individual packages as defined by Directive 79/112: Quote " pre-packaged foodstuff " shall mean any single item for presentation as such
to the ultimate consumer, consisting of a foodstuff and the packaging into which it was put before being offered for sale, whether such packaging encloses the foodstuff completely or only partially, but in any case in such a way that the contents cannot be altered without opening or changing the packaging. Unquote

A consumer is, for this legislation, a person, or a caterer for example (not a processing plant).