Fresh beef and beef products

All biosecurity requirements must be met before Imported Food Inspection Scheme requirements apply.

Check our Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON) for biosecurity import conditions.

We classify imported food that presents a potential medium or high risk to public health as risk food. All risk food is listed in the Imported Food Control Order 2019.

Fresh beef and beef products are classified as risk food

This includes fresh raw (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products:

• carcasses
• whole muscle meat and bone-in cuts
• ground (minced beef) and trim for grinding
• offal

You can only import fresh raw beef and beef products that originate in a country:

• with a satisfactory BSE risk status
• covered by a recognised foreign government certificate.

Beef offal is not permitted to be imported due to biosecurity restrictions. Refer to BICON to review the biosecurity import conditions.

Certification arrangements

Fresh raw (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products can only be imported from countries listed here.

Declaring certificates

When lodging a Full Import Declaration (FID), you must declare your certificate in the Integrated Cargo System (ICS) by lodging the correct ICS document code and certificate number for the food.

See lodging declarations and documentation.

Community Protection (CP) question

You will need to answer this CP question when lodging your full import declaration:

IFIS: Are the goods raw minced/ground beef or raw beef intended for mincing/grinding (answer yes if the goods are raw beef patties or burgers)?

Testing and inspection

We refer consignments of fresh raw (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products for analytical testing at the rate of 5%. During inspection, we will also conduct a visual and label assessment.

Table 1 shows the tests that will be applied and permitted results for each food type.

Table 1, Food type, test applied and permitted results

n = the number of samples to be analysed from a lot of food.
c = the maximum allowable number of defective sample units, that have counts between ‘m’ and ‘M’.
m = the acceptable microbiological level in a sample unit.
M = the level, which when exceeded (the level is greater than M), in one or more samples would cause the lot to be rejected.

Food safety risks

Food Standard Australia New Zealand has given us advice that fresh raw beef and beef products present a potential medium or high risk to public health for the pathogenic microorganisms Salmonella spp. and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). The risk increases for ground product. To make sure there are food safety controls in place to manage these hazards, imports must be:

• covered by a recognised foreign government certificate
• tested to verify these controls are effective.

Glossary

Beef 

Beef means the flesh, bone, offal or any other tissue of an animal in the subfamily bovinae.

Beef products

Beef products means food prepared from or containing beef, but does not include gelatine, collagen, rendered fats, tallow or di-calcium phosphate.

Competent authority

The government authority or official body authorised by the government that is responsible for the setting of regulatory food safety requirements and/or for the organisation of official controls including enforcement.

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