Australia - Export requirements for meat and poultry products

Eligible/ineligible product

Eligible

• Pork products:
  • fresh (chilled or frozen)
  • cooked
  • canned (cooked)
  • natural casings
• Rendered animal fat
• Poultry products:
  • canned (cooked)

Ineligible

• Beef
• Poultry products:
  • fresh or frozen
  • domesticated birds
  • wild birds

Pre-export approvals by competent authority of importing country

Establishments

• Pork establishments must appear on Annex 1: List of Establishments Approved to Export to Australia.

Import permit

• A valid import permit issued by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, under the Biosecurity Act 2015, must accompany Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) documentation for consignments.
• Meat product and/or the ingredients being used to manufacture it must meet the animal health and the public health requirements as specified on the import permit.
• For more information on import permits issued by the Department of Agriculture, please use the Biosecurity Import Conditions (BICON) database.

Production controls and inspection requirements

Pork products

• Establishments where pork is received and used in the manufacturing of pork destined to Australia must develop and implement effective and verifiable receiving controls to ensure that the pork received at the establishment in view of manufacturing of products destined to Australia meets Australian requirements.
• Establishments where pork is manufactured for export to Australia must develop and implement effective and verifiable control measures for all additional Australian requirements. The controls must include monitoring, verification and deviation procedures.
• The measures taken by the operator to comply with applicable requirements must be reviewed and found satisfactory by the CFIA inspector. The inspector will verify compliance through usual inspection activities.

Raw pork

• The animals from which the meat is derived must have permanently resided in Canada and/or the United States.
• The meat must not be derived from the head or neck, major peripheral lymph nodes (popliteal, iliac, inguinal, axillary, ventral, middle and dorsal superficial cervical and those in the region of the head and neck) must be removed and the meat must be deboned.
• The establishment where the pigs were slaughtered, the meat cut/boned/processed/further processed and/or stored has a quality assurance program providing assurance that the meat destined to Australia is identified and totally segregated from meat not eligible for export to Australia.
• Processing records must ensure the traceability of the origin of the raw pork used to manufacture pork products destined to Australia so that it can be verified that only eligible pork was used.
• The shipping container must be sealed in a tamper evident manner.
• When both eligible meat and non-eligible meat is present on premises, eligible meat must be clearly identified so that it can be easily distinguished from non-eligible meat.

Cooked pork

• In addition to the items listed in the Raw pork section above the following restrictions apply:
  • The meat must be heated at one of the prescribed time/temperature parameters indicated in Annex C – Public Health Certificate for Cooked Pork Destined to Australia (footnote 8).
  • As of January 11, 2017, cooked pork can be prepared by ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing. Details can be found at the following Department of Agriculture document: Biosecurity Advice 2017/02 – Biosecurity policy for importation of UHT processed pig meat - PDF (577 kb).
  • The temperature recording equipment must be checked during the cooking process and must be in good working order. Records must confirm that the applicable time/temperature is met.
  • The cooked pork product destined to be exported to Australia must be processed and stored separately from all other products. This requirement is satisfied when the pork products destined to Australia are processed separately from products not eligible for export to Australia and stored separately from products not eligible for export to Australia in a manner that they are not exposed to contamination (example: product is fully packaged) and can be easily identified.
  • Processing records, including cooking charts, must be kept for at least two (2) years.

Canned pork meat

• Products were derived from animals slaughtered for human consumption, at a registered establishment in Canada or an approved foreign plant.
• The animals from which the goods were derived were subjected to ante-mortem and post-mortem veterinary inspection at the time of slaughter and were free from contagious and infectious diseases.
• Products must not be exposed to contamination prior to export.
• The product must not be of a quality that requires refrigeration and must not be transported to Australia under refrigeration.
• The net weight of each can must not exceed 1 kg.
• A declaration by the manufacturer is also required, which states that:
  1. in the course of manufacture, every portion of the contents of the cans or tins have been heated to a temperature of not less than 100°C;
  2. and, the temperature of the heat used for that purpose and the length of time for which it was used, which was endorsed by an official CFIA veterinarian in the country of manufacture, with a certificate certifying that the official CFIA veterinarian is familiar with the process of manufacture of the goods, and that the veterinarian has no reason to doubt the truth of the declaration.

Rendered animal fat

• During the rendering process, the animal fat is maintained at a temperature of not less than 120°C for a continuous period of not less than thirty (30) minutes or is subjected to other alternative heat treatments as outlined in the import permit issued by the Australian authorities.
• An attestation signed by the person who was in charge of the animal fat rendering process, specifying the rendering temperature at which the rendering or production took place, and the continuous period during which that temperature was maintained, must be provided to CFIA and kept on file by the veterinarian-in-charge or the inspector-in-charge.

Canned poultry products

• A declaration by the manufacturer is required, which states that:
  1. that, in the course of the manufacture, every portion of the contents of the cans or tins have been heated to a temperature of not less than 100°C; and
  2. the temperature of the heat used for that purpose and the length of time for which it was used; and a statement by an official CFIA veterinarian endorsing the declaration which certifies that the official CFIA veterinarian is familiar with the process of manufacture of the goods and that the veterinarian has no reason to doubt the truth of the declaration.

Labelling, marking and packaging requirements

• Shipping containers must be sealed in a tamper evident manner.
• The transport container must be sealed with an official seal

Documentation requirements

Certificate

• Certificate of Inspection Covering Meat Products (CFIA/ACIA 1454)
• Annex A – Public Health Certificate for Uncooked Pork Destined to Australia
• Annex C – Public Health Certificate for Cooked Pork Destined to Australia
• Annex D – Certification in Relation to Japanese Requirements
  • Annex D can be issued if all applicable requirements for Japan are met.

Other information

Further information on import requirements can be obtained from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, and the Australian government's Biosecurity Import Conditions (BICON) database.

Australian Government Department of Agriculture
18 Marcus Clarke St, GPO Box 858
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia