6 replies to this topic

[Zeeshan]

This forum seems to somewhat irrelevant wrt my topic but i do not find any other relevant forum here.

If somebody have information regarding this kindly share.

We are making ready to eat and ready to cook food and currently exporting to Australia.

We are ISO 22000 certified.

Our food ingredients include mainly vegetable oil, beef & chicken meat, spices and dairy products.

Product categories include cooked curry, legumes, vegetables, rice, snacks and sweet dishes.

What would be the mandatory requirements to export to UK?

1) Certification requirement - Is ISO 22000 is enough or have to go for any GFSI recognized scheme?

2) Raw material regulatory requirements for imported food?

3) Any other regulatory requirements for imported food items - RTE and RTC?

Regards.

Zeeshan.

[Charles.C]

This forum seems to somewhat irrelevant wrt my topic but i do not find any other relevant forum here.

If somebody have information regarding this kindly share.

We are making ready to eat and ready to cook food and currently exporting to Australia.

We are ISO 22000 certified.

Our food ingredients include mainly vegetable oil, beef & chicken meat, spices and dairy products.

Product categories include cooked curry, legumes, vegetables, rice, snacks and sweet dishes.

What would be the mandatory requirements to export to UK?

1) Certification requirement - Is ISO 22000 is enough or have to go for any GFSI recognized scheme?

2) Raw material regulatory requirements for imported food?

3) Any other regulatory requirements for imported food items - RTE and RTC?

Regards.

Zeeshan.

Hi Zeeshan,

 

Maybe not directly relevant but in the past I had experience regarding export of cooked, RTE, shrimp to UK. At that time, UK had its own (published) import RTE micro requirements for the usual 3-5 parameters (independently IIRC of the EC). The absolute limits, again IIIRC, were numerically similar to UK's RTE internal micro requirements (available on this Forum) but with a different (ie nmMc) sampling format. The limits tended to be less demanding than fpr Australia but maybe no longer.

(Obviously beef, vegetables, etc may have different micro spectra as compared to shrimp)

[pHruit]

1) For certification, there is an overwhelming preference for GFSI-benchmarked standards amongst the UK retailers and major brands. It's not a formal regulatory requirement, but not having this may limit your options in terms of potential customers. It's also likely to be the case that Pakistan as an origin will score as higher-risk in some of the retailer/brand risk assessments, so that isn't going to make things any easier for you. I'd very much recommend looking at migrating towards FSSC22000 (if you want to stick with ISO-derived standards) if possible, or BRC if you really want to make the UK customers happy

 

2/3) There are general microbiological requirements for foodstuffs in the UK/EU set out by Regulation (EC) 2073/2005 - current consolidated version available here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R2073-20200308

Additionally you'll need to ensure that your raw materials comply with pesticides, metals, veterinary product etc residue requirements - have a look at the following as a starter:

Regulation (EC) 1881/2006 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...6R1881-20210919

Regulation (EC) 396/2005 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R0396-20210902

Regulation (EU) 37/2010 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...0R0037-20210506

[Charles.C]

1) For certification, there is an overwhelming preference for GFSI-benchmarked standards amongst the UK retailers and major brands. It's not a formal regulatory requirement, but not having this may limit your options in terms of potential customers. It's also likely to be the case that Pakistan as an origin will score as higher-risk in some of the retailer/brand risk assessments, so that isn't going to make things any easier for you. I'd very much recommend looking at migrating towards FSSC22000 (if you want to stick with ISO-derived standards) if possible, or BRC if you really want to make the UK customers happy

 

2/3) There are general microbiological requirements for foodstuffs in the UK/EU set out by Regulation (EC) 2073/2005 - current consolidated version available here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R2073-20200308

Additionally you'll need to ensure that your raw materials comply with pesticides, metals, veterinary product etc residue requirements - have a look at the following as a starter:

Regulation (EC) 1881/2006 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...6R1881-20210919

Regulation (EC) 396/2005 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R0396-20210902

Regulation (EU) 37/2010 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...0R0037-20210506

Hi pHruit,

 

You may well be (EC) correct for referenced foods but IM(previous)EX for seafood, the above Regs were, at least for micro, "politely" ignored other than perhaps regarding some specific zero-tolerant pathogens.(some are geographically well-debated) .

Nowadays, presumably even more likelihood to ignore?

 

Regardless, you are certainly correct in that the first question to a potential supplier is likely to relate to compliance to a GFSI-recognized Standard.

I would 100% disagree with any promotion of FSSC22000 unless, perhaps, terrified  of annual audits.

 

PS - @Zeeshan -  based on previous threads here, "ready-to-cook" (RTC) may have more than one interpretation.

[Zeeshan]

Hi Zeeshan,

 

Maybe not directly relevant but in the past I had experience regarding export of cooked, RTE, shrimp to UK. At that time, UK had its own (published) import RTE micro requirements for the usual 3-5 parameters (independently IIRC of the EC). The absolute limits, again IIIRC, were numerically similar to UK's RTE internal micro requirements (available on this Forum) but with a different (ie nmMc) sampling format. The limits tended to be less demanding than fpr Australia but maybe no longer.

(Obviously beef, vegetables, etc may have different micro spectra as compared to shrimp)

Would you please share the links to relevant information?

[Zeeshan]

1) For certification, there is an overwhelming preference for GFSI-benchmarked standards amongst the UK retailers and major brands. It's not a formal regulatory requirement, but not having this may limit your options in terms of potential customers. It's also likely to be the case that Pakistan as an origin will score as higher-risk in some of the retailer/brand risk assessments, so that isn't going to make things any easier for you. I'd very much recommend looking at migrating towards FSSC22000 (if you want to stick with ISO-derived standards) if possible, or BRC if you really want to make the UK customers happy

 

2/3) There are general microbiological requirements for foodstuffs in the UK/EU set out by Regulation (EC) 2073/2005 - current consolidated version available here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R2073-20200308

Additionally you'll need to ensure that your raw materials comply with pesticides, metals, veterinary product etc residue requirements - have a look at the following as a starter:

Regulation (EC) 1881/2006 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...6R1881-20210919

Regulation (EC) 396/2005 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...5R0396-20210902

Regulation (EU) 37/2010 - current consolidated version here: https://eur-lex.euro...0R0037-20210506

Thanks a lot. :)

[Charles.C]

Would you please share the links to relevant information?

https://www.ifsqn.co...ds/#entry127333

(refs 3[b,a])