China GMO Rice/Rice Products

Controls on rice and rice products from China

  The Specified Products from China (Restriction on First Placing on the Market) (England) Regulations 2008 as amended apply to imports of rice and rice products from China. Legislation is in place to protect consumers by controlling the importation of rice and rice products which may be manufactured from material contaminated with genetically modified organisms. In 2008 Commission Decision 2008/289/EC was put in place due to concerns about contamination with the unauthorised genetically modified organism (GMO) Bt63. Since 2008 consignments have continued to be identified that contain Bt63 and other unauthorised GMOs.  As a result, the European Commission introduced Commission Implementing Decision 2011/884/EU which extended the range of GMOs controlled. A further amendment to this law Commission Implementing Decision 2013/287/EU has been published which applies from 4 July 2013. The Decision sets out import conditions for all imports of rice, and products containing rice from China.  The conditions are that:-

• consignments must be pre-notified to, and imported through, a Designated Point of Entry (DPE).  Felixstowe is a DPE and pre-notification should be through the submission of a CED on TRACES.
• each lot must be accompanied by an analytical report and a health certificate.  There are specified formats for the documents in the Decision. The analytical report must be issued by an AQSIQ designated laboratory.
• consignments not accompanied by the required documents must be destroyed or re-dispatched to the country of origin.
• every consignment accompanied by the correct documents will then be sampled and tested at import.  If there are several lots in a consignment, each lot shall be subject to sampling and analysis.
• every consignment must have a code (lot number) on the packaging which is referred to on the health certificate.
• port health can charge a fee for carrying out the checks.
• products shipped from Hong Kong but containing rice of Chinese origin are covered.

Consignments that Port Health suspect may contain rice will be detained based on the description shown on the Destin8 manifest.  In order to prove the nature and origin of the consignment a copy of the commercial documents will need to be submitted. Where there are processed foodstuffs products from China, that we suspect contain rice, details of the ingredients will also be requested.  (If you think that this information will be requested it is quicker to provide it with the commercial documents.) Where a product is being imported that is not a rice product, to speed up the release process, the importer can make a statement detailing the consignment and confirming that it does not contain, consist of or is not produced from rice.  Information from manufacturers in support of this importer  statement may still be requested. Port Health may also randomly select consignments for examination to confirm the accuracy of such statements. All costs resulting from these checks, including the cost of sampling and analysis and any enforcement measures taken in respect of a failed consignment have to be met by the importer. Note: The scientific analysis protocols applicable to processed products have been amended. This may result in a change to the analytical cost. Current fees All sampled consignments will remain on Port Health hold until satisfactory results are received.  Product found contaminated with GM material will be rejected from import into the EU and must either be re-dispatched or destroyed. Products Covered by the Controls

Product	CN Code
Rice in the husk (‘paddy’ or rough)	1006 10
Husked (brown) rice	1006 20
Semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed	1006 30
Broken rice	1006 40 00
Rice flour	1102 90 50
Rice groats and meal	1103 19 50
Rice pellets	1103 20 50
Flaked rice grains	1104 19 91
Rolled or flaked cereal grains (excluding grains of oats, wheat, rye, maize and barley, and flaked rice)	1104 19 99
Rice starch	1108 19 10
Preparations for infant use, put up for retail sale	1901 10 00
Uncooked pasta, not stuffed or otherwise prepared, containing eggs	1902 11 00
Uncooked pasta, not stuffed or otherwise prepared, not containing eggs	1902 19
Stuffed pasta, whether or not cooked or otherwise prepared	1902 20
Other pasta (other than uncooked pasta, not stuffed or otherwise prepared, and other than stuffed pasta, whether or not cooked or otherwise prepared)	1902 30
Prepared foods obtained by swelling or roasting cereals or cereal products, obtained from rice	1904 10 30
Preparations of the muesli-type based on unroasted cereal flakes	1904 20 10
Prepared foods obtained from unroasted cereal flakes or from mixtures of unroasted cereal flakes and roasted cereal flakes or swelled cereals, obtained from rice excluding preparations of the muesli-type on the basis of unroasted cereal flakes)	1904 20 95
Rice, pre-cooked or otherwise prepared, not elsewhere specified or included (excluding flour, groats and meal, food preparations obtained by swelling or roasting or from unroasted cereal flakes or from mixtures of unroasted cereal flakes and roasted cereal flakes or swelled cereals)	1904 90 10
Ricepaper	ex 1905 90 20
Biscuits	1905 90 45
Extruded or expanded products, savoury or salted	1905 90 55
Bran, sharps and other residues, whether or not in the form of pellets, derived from the sifting, milling or other working of rice with a starch content not exceeding 35 % by weight	2302 40 02
Bran, sharps and other residues, whether or not in the form of pellets, derived from the sifting, milling or other working of rice other than with a starch content not exceeding 35 % by weight	2302 40 08
Extruded or expanded products, sweetened (e.g. Fruit tarts, currant bread, panettone, meringues, Christmas stollen, croissants and other bakers wares)	1905 90 60
Extruded or expanded products neither sweetened nor savouried nor salted (e.g. Pizzas, quiches, and other unsweetened baker's wares)	1905 90 90
Sauces and preparations, mixed condiments and mixed seasonings	2103 90 90

1. Is Hong Kong covered?  Goods shipped from Hong Kong where the rice originates in China is covered, however, goods from Hong Kong where the rice is from other origins are not.
2. Will the requirements for security features apply? (The security features are in place to prevent counterfeit documents being produced.)  Examples of these features are text and fibres that fluoresce under UV light and shading that prevents photocopying.
3. My product has only a tiny amount of rice in it, will the new law apply? The law does not specify a minimum percentage of rice in a product below which the law does not apply.  The CN code should be used to determine whether the product is covered by the law.   However for products such as rice vinegar, while the CN Code is covered by the law, in practice the laboratory analysis of such a small percentage of processed rice is not possible and this product is exempt from checks