Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 of 22 October 2019 on the temporary increase of official controls and emergency measures governing the entry into the Union of certain goods from certain third countries implementing Regulations (EU) 2017/625 and (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 669/2009, (EU) No 884/2014, (EU) 2015/175, (EU) 2017/186 and (EU) 2018/1660 (Text with EEA relevance.)

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2019/1793 of 22 October 2019 on the temporary increase of official controls and emergency measures governing the entry into the Union of certain goods from certain third countries implementing Regulations (EU) 2017/625 and (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 669/2009, (EU) No 884/2014, (EU) 2015/175, (EU) 2017/186 and (EU) 2018/1660 (Text with EEA relevance)

SECTION 1

COMMON PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

This Regulation lays down:

(a) the list of food and feed of non-animal origin from certain third countries subject to a temporary increase of official controls at their entry into the Union, established in Annex I, falling within the CN Codes and TARIC classifications laid down in that Annex, in accordance with Article 47(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625;

(b) special conditions governing the entry into the Union of the following categories of consignments of food and feed due to the risk of contamination by mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, pesticide residues, microbiological contamination, cereulide toxin, Sudan dyes, and plant toxins, in accordance with Article 53(1), point (b), of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002: (i) consignments of food and feed of non-animal origin from third countries or parts of those third countries containing any of the food and feed listed in the table in point 1 of Annex II and falling within the CN codes and TARIC classifications laid down in that Annex; (ii) consignments of food and feed of non-animal origin dispatched to the Union from a third country other than the country of origin and containing any of the food and feed listed in the table in point 3 of Annex II;

(ba) suspension of the entry into the Union of the food and feed listed in Annex IIa;

(c) rules on the frequency of identity checks and physical checks for the consignments of food and feed referred to in points (a) and (b) of this paragraph;

(d) rules on the methods to be used for sampling and for laboratory analyses for the consignments of food and feed referred to in points (a) and (b) of this paragraph, in accordance with Article 34(6)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625;

(e) rules concerning the model official certificate required to accompany consignments of food and feed referred to in point (b) of this paragraph and the requirements for such official certificate, in accordance with Article 53(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002;

(f) rules for the issuance of replacement official certificates required to accompany consignments of food and feed referred to in point (b) of this paragraph, in accordance with Article 90(c) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

This Regulation shall not apply to the following categories of consignments of products, unless their net weight exceeds 5 kg of fresh products or 2 kg of other products:

(a) consignments which form part of passengers’ personal luggage and are intended for personal consumption or use;

(b) non-commercial consignments sent to natural persons, which are not intended to be placed on the market. This Regulation shall not apply to the following categories of consignments of products, unless their net weight exceeds 50 kg of fresh products or 10 kg of other products: (a) consignments sent as trade samples, laboratory samples or as display items for exhibitions, which are not intended to be placed on the market; (b) consignments intended for scientific purposes.

The competent authority may exempt from identity and physical checks, including sampling and laboratory analyses, in accordance with this Regulation consignments of food and feed of non-animal origin sent as trade samples, laboratory samples, display items for exhibitions and consignments of food and feed intended for scientific purposes, which exceed the weight limits provided for in paragraph 3, second subparagraph, and are not intended to be placed on the market, provided that:

(a) they are accompanied by an authorisation for introduction into the Union issued in advance by the competent authority of the Member State of destination and providing: (i) the purpose for introduction into the Union; (ii) the place of destination; (iii) guarantees that the consignments will not be placed on the market as food or feed;

(b) the operator presents the consignments at the border control post of entry into the Union;

(c) the competent authority of the border control post of entry into the Union informs the competent authority of the Member State of destination, through the IMSOC, about the introduction of the consignments.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘consignment’ means ‘consignment’ as defined in Article 3(37) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625;

(b) ‘placing on the market’ means ‘placing on the market’ as defined in point (8) of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002.

(c) ‘country of origin’ means: (i) the country where the goods originate from, were grown, harvested or produced, where food and feed is listed in the Annexes due to a possible risk of contamination by mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, or by plant toxins, or due to possible non-compliance with maximum allowed levels of pesticide residues; (ii) the country where the goods were produced, manufactured or wrapped where food and feed is listed in the Annexes due to the risk of presence of Salmonella or due to other hazards than those specified in point (i).

Article 3

Sampling and analyses

The sampling and the analyses to be carried out by competent authorities at border control posts or at control points referred to in Article 53(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625, as part of physical checks on consignments of food and feed referred to in Article 1(1)(a) and (b), or in third countries for the purposes of the results of analyses which are required to accompany the consignments of food and feed referred to in Article 1(1)(b) as provided for in this Regulation shall be performed in accordance with the following requirements:

(a) for food listed in Annexes I and II due to possible contamination risk by mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, the sampling and the analyses shall be performed in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2782 (¹);

(b) for feed listed in Annexes I and II due to possible contamination risk by mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, the sampling and the analyses shall be performed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 152/2009;

(c) for food and feed listed in Annexes I and II due to possible non-compliance with the maximum allowed levels of pesticides residues the sampling shall be performed in accordance with Directive 2002/63/EC;

(e) for food listed in Annexes I and II due to the risk of presence of Salmonella, the sampling and the analyses for the control of Salmonella shall be performed in accordance with the sampling procedures and the analytical reference methods laid down in Annex III;

(f) the methods of sampling and analyses referred to in the footnotes to Annexes I and II shall be applied in relation to hazards other than those referred to in points (a), (b), (c) and (e).

Article 4

Release for free circulation

The custom authorities shall only allow the release for free circulation of consignments of food and feed listed in Annexes I and II upon presentation of a duly finalised Common Health Entry Document (CHED) as provided for in Article 57(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625, which confirms that the consignment is in compliance with the applicable rules referred to in Article 1(2) of that Regulation.

SECTION 2

TEMPORARY INCREASE OF OFFICIAL CONTROLS AT BORDER CONTROL POSTS AND CONTROL POINTS ON CERTAIN FOOD AND FEED FROM CERTAIN THIRD COUNTRIES

Article 5

List of food and feed of non-animal origin

Article 6

Frequency of identity checks and physical checks

SECTION 3

SPECIAL CONDITIONS GOVERNING THE ENTRY INTO THE UNION AND SUSPENSION OF ENTRY INTO THE UNION OF CERTAIN FOOD AND FEED FROM CERTAIN THIRD COUNTRIES

Article 7

Entry into the Union

Article 8

Frequency of identity checks and physical checks

Article 9

Identification code

Article 10

Results of sampling and analyses performed by the competent authorities of the third country

On the basis of the results referred to in paragraph 1, the competent authorities shall ascertain:

(a) compliance with Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 (²) and Directive 2002/32/EC on maximum levels of relevant mycotoxins, for consignments of food and feed listed in Annex II due to contamination risk by mycotoxins and plant toxins.

(b) compliance with Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 on maximum residue levels of pesticides, for consignments of food and feed listed in Annex II due to contamination risk by pesticide residues;

(d) the absence of Salmonella in 25 g, for consignments of food listed in Annex II due to risk of microbiological contamination by Salmonella.

Article 11

Official certificate

The official certificate shall comply with the following requirements:

(a) the official certificate shall be issued by the competent authority of the third country of origin or of the third country where the consignment is consigned from if that country is different from the country of origin;

(b) the official certificate shall bear the identification code of the consignment to which it relates, referred to in Article 9(1);

(c) the official certificate shall bear the signature of the certifying officer and the official stamp;

(d) where the official certificate contains multiple or alternative statements, the statements which are not relevant shall be crossed out, initialled and stamped by the certifying officer, or completely removed from the certificate;

(e) the official certificate shall consist of one of the following: (i) a single sheet of paper; (ii) several sheets of paper where all sheets are indivisible and constitute an integrated whole; (iii) a sequence of pages with each page numbered so as to indicate that it is a particular page in a finite sequence;

(f) where the official certificate consists of a sequence of pages as referred to in point (e)(iii) of this paragraph, each page shall bear the unique code referred to in Article 89(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625, the signature of the certifying officer and the official stamp;

(g) the official certificate shall be presented to the competent authority of the border control post of entry into the Union where the consignment is subjected to official controls;

(h) the official certificate shall be issued before the consignment to which it relates leaves the control of the competent authorities in the third country issuing the certificate;

(i) the official certificate shall be drawn up in the official language, or in one of the official languages, of the Member State of the border control post of entry into the Union;

(j) the official certificate shall be valid for not more than four months from the date of issue, but in any case no longer than six months from the date of the results of the laboratory analyses referred to Article 10(1).

Article 11a

Suspension of entry into the Union

SECTION 4

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 12

Updates to Annexes

The Commission shall review the lists set out in Annexes I, II and IIa on a regular basis not exceeding a period of six months, in order to take into account new information related to risks and non-compliance.

Article 13

Repeal

Article 14

Transitional period

Consignments of arachidonic acid oil from China, which have been dispatched from the country of origin, or from another third country if that country is different from the country of origin, before the date of entry into force of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/459 (⁵), may enter the Union until 26 April 2026 without being accompanied by the results of sampling and analyses and the official certificate provided for in Articles 10 and 11.

Article 15

Entry into force and date of application

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 14 December 2019.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

ANNEX II

1. Food and feed of non-animal origin referred to in Article 1(1), point (b)(i)

2. Food and feed of non-animal origin referred to in Article 1(1), point (b)(ii)

ANNEX IIa

ANNEX III

(1) Sampling procedures and analytical reference methods referred to in Article 3(e)

(a) In the case where Annexes I or II to this Regulation provide for the application of the sampling procedures and analytical reference methods laid down in point 1(a) of Annex III to this Regulation, the following rules shall apply: Analytical reference method (¹) Weight of consignment Number of sample units (n) Sampling procedures Analytical result required for each sample unit of the same consignment EN ISO 6579-1 Less than 20 tonnes 5 n sample units are collected of a minimum of 100 g each. If batches are identified in the CHED, the sample units shall be collected from the different batches randomly chosen from the consignment. If batches cannot be identified, the sample units are collected randomly from the consignment. Pooling of sample units is not allowed. Each sample unit shall be tested separately. No detection of Salmonella in 25 g Greater than or equal to 20 tonnes 10 (¹) The most recent version of the analytical reference method shall be used or a method validated against it in accordance with the protocol set out in EN ISO 16140-2.

(b) In the case where Annexes I or II to this Regulation provide for the application of the sampling procedures and analytical reference methods laid down in point 1(b) of Annex III to this Regulation, the following rules shall apply: Analytical reference method (¹) Weight of consignment Number of sample units (n) Sampling procedures Analytical result required for each sample unit of the same consignment EN ISO 6579-1 Any weight 5 n sample units are collected of a minimum of 100 g each. If batches are identified in the CHED, the sample units shall be collected from the different batches randomly chosen from the consignment. If batches cannot be identified, the sample units are collected randomly from the consignment. Pooling of sample units is not allowed. Each sample unit shall be tested separately. No detection of Salmonella in 25 g (¹) The most recent version of the analytical reference method shall be used or a method validated against it in accordance with the protocol set out in EN ISO 16140-2.

ANNEX IV