Human milk and human milk 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.

Human milk and human milk products are classified as risk food

This includes:

• Human milk
• Human milk products such as fortifiers and formula derived from human milk.

Only human milk and human milk products covered by a recognised foreign government certificate can be imported.

Current certification arrangements

You can import human milk and human milk products from the United States into Australia with this certificate.

United States

Declaring certificates

When lodging a Full Import Declaration (FID), use the correct ICS document code and certificate number for the food.

See lodging declarations and documentation for imported food.

Community Protection (CP) questions

You will need to answer these CP questions when lodging your full import declaration:

IFIS: ARE THE GOODS HUMAN MILK OR DERIVED FROM HUMAN MILK?

IFIS: DO THE GOODS CONTAIN HUMAN MILK IN ANY FORM?

Inspection

We refer consignments of human milk and human milk products for inspection at the rate of 5%.

During inspection we will conduct a visual and label assessment. Labelling must comply with Standard 2.9.5 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

Food safety risks

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has given us advice on human milk and human milk products for 30 potential hazards. Of the hazards assessed, 15 present a potential medium or high risk to public health and safety.

To make sure there are food safety controls in place to manage the range of potential hazards for human milk and human milk products, we require imports to be covered by a recognised foreign government certificate.

Glossary

Human milk

Human milk means expressed milk collected from lactating women to be fed to infants that are not the biological infants of the women supplying the milk.

Human milk products

Human milk products mean products derived from human milk that have been specially formulated to meet the specific nutritional needs of infants such as fortifiers and formula.

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