Import compound products to Great Britain
Understand the import rules for food products that contain multiple products of animal origin (POAO).
You must follow the guidance for importing animal products when you import any food that contains animal products such as meat, dairy or eggs. This includes compound products.
This guidance explains additional things you need to do when importing compound products.
Compound products definition
Compound products are food products for human consumption that both:
- contain more than one product of animal origin (POAO)
- cannot be defined as composite products
The POAO can be processed or unprocessed .
Examples of compound products include:
- cured sausage that contains pork and cheese
- omelette that contains eggs and cheese
- chicken Kyiv that contains chicken and butter
- battered cheese and ham bites
Check the definition of composite products.
If you’re not sure if your product is a compound or composite product, contact the border control post where your product will enter the UK for confirmation.
Documents required for compound products
You need:
- a health certificate for each medium risk POAO element
- one commercial document with details of all the low risk elements
You may also need an import licence or authorisation for some products.
Find more information on these documents in the guidance on importing animal products.
Products that contain fish
If your product contains fish or fishery products you may need a catch certificate, a processing statement and proof of storage.
Find out more in the guidance on importing fish.
High risk food
You should check if your product contains any high risk food of non-animal origin (HRFNAO). If it does you’ll need to meet additional requirements.
Import notifications for compound products
For compound products, you need to enter the commodity code for each element in your import notification on IPAFFS.
You need to provide the weight of each element of the product. The sum of the weights must equal the total weight. It is important that the weight specified in your import notification on IPAFFS and your customs declaration are the same.
Uploading multiple health certificates
All medium risk elements require a health certificate. You can upload one health certificate into the ‘health certificate’ field and any remaining health certificates into the ‘accompanying documents’ field.
When you need to submit multiple import notifications
You need to submit an additional import notification on IPAFFS if your product contains any other commodity types that require an import notification. Commodity types include plant products, high risk food and feed of non-animal origin (HRFNAO), and animal products.
For example, if your product contains HRFNAO and animal products, you need to:
- submit a CHED.D for the HRFNAO
- submit a CHED.P for the animal products
Cross-referencing notifications
If your compound product requires multiple import notifications on IPAFFS, you should include all the reference numbers in the commercial documents for each import notification.
You also need to enter these reference numbers in your customs declaration on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) - in the field labelled ‘data element (DE) 2/3’. You should write the reference number in the following format - GBCHDyyyy.nnnnnnn.
If any reference numbers are missing, your products may be held at the border until this is resolved. Find more guidance on how to enter data into CDS.
Updates to this page
Published 12 March 2024Last updated 23 January 2025 + show all updates
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This page now provides additional guidance for importing compound products from anywhere in the world. It should be used alongside the general guidance for importing products of animal origin (POAO).
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Information has been added about importing products made of more than one commodity type.
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Corrected information about uploading GB health certificates to an IPAFFS notification in the 'Notify the authorities in Great Britain' section.
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Updated with new information about sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks.
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Updated the guidance to clarify the definition of a compound product. Also clarified how GB health certificates should be completed and uploaded to an IPAFFS notification for compound products.
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Updated to clarify the definition of compound products. Information that does not apply to compound products has been removed.
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First published.