The notion of food of animal origin destined for human consumption covers food of animal origin or derived from animals, whether it has been processed or not.

Example: milk, meat, eggs, fish or honey. Live animals such as crawfish or bivalve molluscs destined for consumption can also be included.

Composite products require an export health certificate if their composition is mostly of animal origin.

Example: sausage must be accompanied by an export health certificate. Lasagne with only 10 % meat does not require a health certificate.

Setting up a business eSpace

To submit your online application, you must have a business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu.

Certification of the business eSpace

To access the online application form, you must first have your business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu certified by the Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration (ALVA) (see 'Online services and forms' - 'Business eSpace certification by the Luxembourg Veterinary and Food Administration (ALVA)' procedure).

To have your business eSpace certified, you must attach:

• a certificate from the employer attesting that the employee has power of signature and is authorised to bind the company (scanned document in PDF format);
• a copy of the company's business permit (scanned document in PDF format).

Preliminary checks

Before applying for an export health certificate you must check the following for the country of destination of the goods:

• the absence of any embargo or particular restriction on the product concerned;
• the health rules in force;
• any requirement to provide a certificate of origin to accompany the health certificate;
• any other documentary requirement, in particular whether there is a specific certificate template for the product and country concerned, or whether a general certificate is sufficient.

In some cases, foreign authorities require prior approval of the exporting establishment or a specific registration based on an assessment of this establishment by its supervisory authority.

You must apply for your health certificate at least 3 working days before the planned export date, to allow ALVA to organise and conduct a physical on-site inspection of the products intended for export.

Submitting the application

You must submit your application for a health certificate to ALVA via MyGuichet.lu (see 'Online services and forms') to obtain export health certificates for the following products:

• fishery products;
• meat-based products;
• fresh meat;
• dairy products for third countries;
• milk.

ALVA may ask you to attach additional documents to your application (e.g. test results).

For dairy products, you can choose the language in which the certificate is issued based on the country of destination: French and English, French and Arabic, Chinese or English only.

Conditions for granting the certificate

Food of animal origin entering a foreign market must comply with the Luxembourg or European standards.

ALVA shall check:

• the hygiene of foodstuffs;
• the respect of cold temperatures and the cold chain;
• compliance with microbiological criteria;
• the existence of a Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP method);
• the registration of the establishment of production, processing or distribution of foods;
• the specific rules applicable to food of animal origin.

If the third country requires different standards or if there is a bilateral agreement between the European Union and the third country or between Luxembourg and the third country, a veterinarian of ALVA specifically checks these conditions.

In this case, ALVA conducts on-site inspections or may request the result of laboratory analyses. ALVA then certifies that the test results are correct.

If the goods meet the standards, ALVA will issue a health certificate and submit it to you in person or by mail depending on the option chosen.

Conditions for refusal

ALVA will refuse to issue the certificate if the results of the analyses are not in conformity.

If the destination country requires analyses that are not required by EU law and therefore are not applicable on the products in question, ALVA provides a certificate on which the analyses that have not been certified are crossed out.

You must check with the destination country if the certificate is acceptable in this form. If it is not, the goods can be refused by the destination country.

Links