North East Lincolnshire Port Health Authority

There was only a limited amount of NPOAO food being imported through the port compared to that of animal origin. The Authority's approach to imported food control was risk based and there were effective liaison arrangements in place with port operators and shipping agents which allowed for the identification and control of all declared consignments of imported food products not of animal origin. Every commercial manifest received by the Service was being checked to identify all declared consignments of food arriving at the port.

The Authority had acknowledged that liaison arrangements with HM Customs and Excise needed to be strengthened on the control of both imported foods and animal feeding stuffs and measures were being implemented at the time of the audit to improve this. The Authority had generally adopted an informal approach to resolving imported food issues. In the majority of cases this was practical and effective. However, in order to facilitate a formal approach where necessary, procedural guidance on imported food law enforcement activity needed to be expanded to include all relevant information.

Routine monitoring of imported food activities was not carried out and documented procedures needed to be expanded to include regular checks on notices served and actions taken. In addition, records of imported food activities carried out by the Service were not easily retrievable and did not always include all necessary information to enable effective monitoring.