Certain food imported into Australia must be covered by a recognised food safety management certificate. Imported food that require this type of certificate is listed in the Imported Food Control Order 2019.
See a current list of food requiring this certificate.
The certificate is evidence that a food has been produced through a food safety management system. This system must have appropriate controls in place to manage food safety hazards.
The food safety management system must be based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. These are set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Read the guidelines to find out how we determine what is a recognised food safety management certificate.
When a food requires a certificate, an amendment is made to the Order, and importers will have a transition period to comply. To import listed food, you must provide:
- a valid recognised Food Safety Management Certificate, or
- a recognised foreign government certificate.
Make sure you check the requirements for the type of certificate you must provide.
Requirements for food safety management certificates
A recognised food safety management certificate must:
- be issued by a recognised accredited Certification Body
- be limited to one food producer
- confirm that the food producer’s food safety management system identifies and effectively controls the food safety hazards of concern during primary production and processing of the food (HACCP based)
- be able to be validated by us through a web-accessible database administered by the relevant Accreditation Body or Certification Program Owner that accredited the Certification Body.
These requirements and terms are defined in the Guidelines for determining recognised food safety management certificates.
Verifying certificates
New food safety management certificates can be submitted to ifis-certification@aff.gov.au at least two weeks before the expiry date. This allows us to verify and maintain a record of certificates for assessing the compliance of import documents.
The certificate provided must contain:
- the name and address of the certified business
- the standard against which the business is certified
- a relevant scope statement
- a description of the food covered by the certificate
- the certificate number
- certificate issue date, expiry date and audit date
- name, position, and signature of person authorising the certificate
- name, address, and logo of the Certification Body
- logo of the Accreditation Body
Lodging a food safety management certificate
When lodging a Full Import Declaration (FID) in the Integrated Cargo System, select ‘FSMC’ as the ‘Document type’ and enter the certificate numbers as the ‘Document number’.
A valid certificate must be included when lodging through the Cargo Online Lodgement System (COLS).
The certificate must also meet our overarching documentary requirements. These are set out in the Minimum documentary and import declaration requirements policy.
The certificate must be current at the time of import.
Note: Food safety management certificates do not require consignment-specific links.
Food requiring a certificate
We make a determination about what certificates we recognise and provide this on the webpage for each food.
Foods which require a food safety management certificate are:
- Berries (fresh chilled, or frozen) that are ready-to-eat
- Pomegranate arils (fresh chilled, or frozen) that are ready-to-eat
Food safety management certificate guidelines
Guidelines for determining recognised food safety management certificates
If you have difficulty accessing these files, contact us for help.