The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) has issued notice IFN 08-19 – (dated 29th April 2019) Understanding the Food Control Certificate.  This Certificate (known as the FCC) is an electronic direction issued by DAWR advising the owner of the imported food, which may be the importer or Customs Broker, that an entry has been referred for inspection under the Imported Food Inspection Scheme. The FCC states which lines of the import declaration are required to be inspected, and possibly analysed. The FCC also advises what analytical tests are required.
Section 13 of the Imported Food Control Act 1992 specifies that the Food Control Certificate is in a form approved by the delegate. The current PDF version of the Food Control Certificate is HERE
Upon receipt of an FCC, the importer or their Customs Broker is required to book an inspection by contacting DAWR. Details on how to do this are included on the FCC. Food required to be inspected must remain on hold and cannot be distributed until the inspection has taken place.
The owner of the food needs to pay particular attention to the ‘Additional Directions’ section on the FCC as this field includes information on what documents must be presented to the authorised DAWR officer at the inspection.  Documents that may be required include ‘lot’ or ‘can code’ lists – plus quantities per lot or can codes – invoices, packing lists, line identification and a copy of the Food Control Certificate.
All goods identified in the ‘Inspection or inspection & analysis required’ section of the FCC must be fully unpacked to provide unobstructed access to all cartons within the lots identified for inspection, enabling authorised officers to verify the number of cartons as per the lot code list and perform random sampling.  The importer or agent must be present at the time of inspection. All documents must comply with the department’s minimum documentary and import declaration requirements policy.
For further details, contact us here at Colless Young.
