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Food Safety

Although the general rule is that all consignments of material listed in Annex V Part B must be inspected on arrival in the EU, plant health checks can be carried out at a reduced frequency where this can be justified - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2389, as last amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/591.

To be eligible for a reduced frequency check, each trade (trade = commodity from a single country) must have had:

  • an average of at least 200 consignments per year over the previous 3 years and
  • a minimum of 600 consignments inspected over the same period.

Any commodity with 1% or more of its consignments intercepted because of harmful organisms is not eligible.

Any interceptions associated with a particular trade are assessed and allocated a value depending on the estimated mobility of the harmful organism concerned. The total of the allocated values for the particular trade becomes its risk index which is compared against a table of values differentiated according to the number of inspected consignments. The resulting figure is the recommended inspection frequency for the consignment. The final inspection level may be adjusted to ensure a minimum of 200 consignments per year are inspected.

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