Food Export Health Certificates

Any food business based in Wandsworth who wish to export food of an animal origin to countries outside of Great Britain commonly referred to as third countries may need an Export Health Certificates (EHC).

These certificates confirm that a specific business complies with all relevant legislation and the food produced is without risk to health. Dependent on the destination importing country and the commodity type an EHC may have to be sourced from the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) or Wandsworth Council, depending what is being exported and to where.

If a certificate is being issued from the APHA this is likely to be signed by a vet (commonly for meat and dairy products), although fishery products, eggs and certain composite products may be certified by a local authority EHO.

To determine on who can issue the certificate visit GOV.UK.

Information required 

Typical information required for the export certificate is as follows:

• Manufacturer
• Minimum durability
• Storage conditions
• Export approval number
• Consignor
• Consignee
• Destination
• Product
• Quantity
• Country of origin
• Date of production
• Packaging
• Batch number (where appropriate).

You should note that it is the exporter's responsibility to ensure that the destination country's requirements are met. 

How to apply 

Once you have established that it is the Local Authority that can issue your Export Health Certificate and you have the destination country’s requirements, you should contact us at foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk and provide us with this information.

We will prepare a draft certificate for your approval. You should allow 5 working days for this. A same day service is available.

Once you have approved the final draft of your certificate you should email us and we will call you to arrange payment.

When we have received your payment you can either collect the certificate from our offices at Wandsworth Town Hall, High Street Wandsworth or receive a copy in the post. 

Charges

Certificates currently cost £154 each. These will be completed within five working days, often less.

For same day turn around expedited health certificate for exported food, the cost will is £210.

For full details of this, please contact the food safety team at foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk.

Alterations and redrafts will incur an additional charge of £90.

Ways to pay

By debit card

We will contact you by phone to enable you to make a debit card payment.

Further information

You should note that we will not supply a certificate unless you have registered your food business and we can vouch for the safety of any individual batch/consignment of food.

We may need to inspect your business to verify that the food is produced in compliance with UK legislation and may make additional checks, depending on the required wording of the certificate. This may incur an additional charge dependent on the time involved.