Smarter Rules for Safer Food (SRSF)

Collectively these will replace 70 existing European directives and regulations to modernise and improve health and safety standards for the agri-food chain.

The new regulations will apply to the UK while we are a member of the EU and during any transition period. Even if we leave the EU without a deal, the regulations will be retained by the Withdrawal Act and will continue to apply subject to any amendments Parliament may agree.

What will be changing from 14 December 2019?

Border Control Posts (BCPs)

 All Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) and Designated Points of Entry (DPEs) will automatically be re-designated as Border Control Posts (BCPs).

Pre-Notification deadline

Importers of live animals and animal products will need to give the relevant BCP at least one working day, and a minimum of four hours prior notice of importation. Note: there are no changes to the minimum pre-notification period for live animals.

Common Health Entry Document

Importers will also complete a new Common Health Entry Document (CHED), replacing the Common Veterinary Entry Document (CVED) and the Common Entry Document (CED).

Some additional commodities such as reptile meats, rendered animal fats and insects will now require a model certificate.

New pre-notification IT system

 From 11pm on 13 December 2019 TRACES NT will be the new system used for notifying imports from outside the EU. For such imports arriving in the UK after this date, notification using TRACES NT will apply. Registration details can be found below.

Goods that have been pre-notified on TRACES Classic (in use now), will not automatically transfer over to TRACES NT. This means that if you are importing goods from outside the EU that arrive on or after 14 December and that have already been pre-notified you will need to repeat the process on the new IT system.

If you use TRACES Classic for intra EU Trade, you must continue to do so.

Training for the new system

 Defra are arranging webinar sessions for Import Agents which will start on the week commencing 9 December.  

What do businesses need to do now?

1. Familiarise themselves with the new regulations. Further information can be found on Gov.UK here.

2. Importers of animals and animal products from outside the European Union should register for TRACES NT following the instructions below:

1. Create a new EU Login account.
2. Once you have your new EU Login Account you can Request a new user access profile in TRACES.NT
3. The profile you use must reflect your role, for example as an economic operator or Border Control Post (BCP) official.
4. Economic operators must choose the BCP to which they wish to be associated for registration purposes, once registered you will be able to import through any BCP.
5. BCP users should associate themselves to the appropriate Competent Authority.  Requests will be validated by the Competent Authority or BCP depending on your role.

Please be aware the first user who registers for a new TRACES NT account will become the admin for that organisation and will then be responsible for authorising all further users within their organisation.

3. Once registered and trained on TRACES NT, familiarise yourself with the requirements of CHEDs and use them for imports that will arrive on or after 14 December 2019. Further information on CHEDs can be found here.  
4. Once registered and trained, importers of animals and animal products should ensure they use TRACES NT to pre-notify BCPs and ensure that prior notice is given for all consignments due on or after 14 December 2019. Details of UK BCPs can be found here.

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