How to Import Beef into the UK from Brazil: The Controls, Documents and Checks, Step by Step

How to Import Beef into the UK from Brazil: The Controls, Documents and Checks, Step by Step

Brazilian beef is POAO from a non-EU country — that means a CHED-P in IPAFFS and a BCP check, every consignment.

If you're importing beef from Brazil to the UK, you're handling products of animal origin (POAO) from a non-EU third country. That puts your consignment squarely inside the most heavily controlled lane of GB border policy. Three things govern whether it clears: the exporting establishment must be on Defra's approved list, the consignment must travel with an export health certificate (EHC) certified by Brazil's competent authority, and you must pre-notify in IPAFFS to raise a Common Health Entry Document (CHED-P) so the goods can be checked at a designated Border Control Post (BCP). Under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), beef sits in a risk category that sets how often it's physically inspected. Get any one of these wrong and a perishable consignment sits — and the cost of a hold compounds by the hour.

This is a step-by-step walk-through for the person who owns the shipment. It's practical guidance, not regulated advice — rules change, so check the current position for your specific product and route on GOV.UK, or ask us.

Can you legally import beef from Brazil to GB at all?

Yes, beef from Brazil can be imported into Great Britain, but only from establishments Brazil's authorities have listed and that GB recognises for that commodity. Brazil is an approved third country for certain bovine products; the specific plant shipping your beef must appear on the relevant approved-establishment list. If the plant isn't listed, the consignment will not clear — full stop.

This is the gate most first-time importers don't know exists. Approval works at two levels. First, the country: GB maintains lists of third countries approved to export particular products of animal origin, published via GOV.UK and Defra. Second, the establishment: within an approved country, only specific slaughterhouses, cutting plants and cold stores are listed to export to GB. Your supplier may export happily to other markets and still not be GB-listed for the exact product you're buying.

Before anything else, confirm the establishment's approval number against the current list for bovine meat. Ask your Brazilian supplier for their GB establishment approval number and verify it yourself — don't take "we export everywhere" as confirmation. This single check decides whether the trade is even possible.

What documents does a beef consignment from Brazil need?

A POAO consignment of beef from Brazil needs an export health certificate (EHC) signed by an official veterinarian of Brazil's competent authority before shipping, a CHED-P pre-notification raised in IPAFFS, a commercial invoice and packing list, and a customs declaration submitted in CDS. The EHC and the CHED-P are the SPS-critical documents; the others are standard import paperwork.

Take each in turn.

The export health certificate (EHC). This is the document that certifies, animal-health and public-health conditions are met. It is not a UK form you complete. It's issued and signed in Brazil, by an official vet acting for Brazil's competent authority, against a model certificate agreed for that commodity and route. The certificate must be the correct current model and must be certified for the consignment before it ships. Model certificates change — check the current version applies before your supplier prints and signs, because an out-of-date or wrong-model certificate can fail at the border.

The CHED-P (Common Health Entry Document, Part 1). You raise this in IPAFFS — the Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System on GOV.UK. CHED-P is the type for products of animal origin (the CHED family also includes CHED-A for live animals, CHED-D for certain feed and food not of animal origin, and CHED-PP for plants and plant products — beef is CHED-P). Raising the CHED-P pre-notifies the authorities that the consignment is coming, declares the commodity, the establishment and the BCP it will arrive through, and generates the reference that lets the goods be checked and released.

Commercial invoice and packing list. Standard, but they must match the EHC and the CHED-P — same product description, same establishment, same weights. Mismatches between documents are a common cause of queries and delays.

The customs declaration. Submitted in CDS (the Customs Declaration Service), this handles the fiscal side: the commodity code, the customs value, and any duty or tariff due. Classification and SPS are separate workstreams that must agree on what the goods are.

Who is responsible for the SPS paperwork — you or your freight forwarder?

Your freight forwarder books the crossing and often submits the customs declaration, but responsibility for raising the CHED-P and ensuring the EHC is correct sits with the importer, not automatically with the forwarder. Confirm in writing who owns each task. Assuming the forwarder handles SPS pre-notification is one of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes.

This is where Tier-A pain usually starts. A forwarder will move the box and clear it through customs. SPS pre-notification — the CHED-P in IPAFFS — is a distinct task, and unless you've agreed and paid for an agent to do it, it falls to you as the importer of record. The EHC is even further from the forwarder's remit: it's certified in Brazil before the goods leave, so if it's wrong or missing, no one at the UK end can fix it.

Map the responsibilities before the first shipment. Who raises the CHED-P? Who checks the EHC model is current? Who books the BCP slot? Who lodges the CDS declaration? Get those four answers in writing and you remove the single biggest source of avoidable holds.

What does BTOM mean for how often your beef is checked?

Under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), POAO from non-EU countries is sorted into risk categories — high, medium or low — that determine the frequency of documentary, identity and physical checks. Beef from Brazil falls into a risk category set by GB policy; that category drives how likely each consignment is to be physically inspected at the BCP.

BTOM is the framework, published on GOV.UK, that replaced the earlier import-controls regime and phased in checks on goods by risk. The practical point for an ops lead: a classification or risk assumption set earlier may now be out of date, because BTOM phased its requirements in over time and categories can be reviewed. Documentary checks apply to all relevant consignments; identity and physical checks happen at a frequency tied to the commodity's risk category. Higher-risk goods are inspected more often.

You can't choose your risk category, but you can plan around it. Know which category your specific beef product sits in, build the possibility of a physical inspection into your timings, and never assume that because the last three consignments cleared on documents alone, the fourth will too.

Where does the consignment get physically checked — and have you booked the right BCP?

Beef from Brazil must enter GB through a Border Control Post (BCP) designated to handle POAO, and you must route the consignment to that BCP in your CHED-P. Not every port has a BCP, and not every BCP is approved for every commodity. Booking the wrong point of entry means there's nowhere lawful to inspect the goods.

APHA and the relevant authorities designate which BCPs can handle which categories of goods — it isn't simply the nearest or busiest port. The CHED-P you raise in IPAFFS names the BCP of arrival, so the routing decision and the pre-notification are linked. If your beef is routed to a port whose BCP isn't approved for chilled or frozen POAO, the consignment can't be checked there and you have a problem before it's even docked.

Confirm two things in advance: that your chosen point of entry has a BCP designated for your specific product, and that it has the capacity and facilities (chilled, frozen) your consignment needs. Then book the slot. No pre-notification in IPAFFS and no BCP slot means no inspection — and for perishable beef, every hour waiting is value lost.

Does the type of beef — frozen, chilled, or a preparation — change the process?

Yes. Frozen beef, chilled beef and beef preparations can sit in different commodity codes and different BTOM risk treatments, which affects the EHC model required, the check frequency, and the BCP facilities needed. The control chain is the same shape — establishment listing, EHC, CHED-P, BCP — but the detail differs by product.

Chilled beef carries tighter handling and timing demands than frozen — temperature control through the cold chain matters more, and a hold is more damaging. The correct EHC model certificate depends on the precise product. A beef preparation or composite product may bring different rules again. And the commodity code you declare in CDS — which sets the duty and, in part, the classification the SPS side reads against — varies by product form.

This is why "importing beef" isn't one process but a family of closely related ones. The safest move is to nail the exact product specification first — chilled or frozen, cut, processed or raw — and let that drive the commodity code, the EHC model and the BCP requirements, rather than working from a generic template.

A worked example: a chilled beef consignment from plant to release

Walk one consignment through end to end and the sequence becomes concrete.

Before it ships. You confirm the Brazilian cutting plant's GB establishment approval number against the current list for bovine meat — it's listed. You agree the exact product spec (chilled boneless beef) and the correct commodity code, and you brief your supplier on the EHC: the right current model certificate, certified by an official vet of Brazil's competent authority, matching the invoice and the spec. You decide the GB point of entry — a port with a BCP designated for chilled POAO — and confirm who is raising the CHED-P (you) and who is lodging the CDS declaration (your agent).

As it ships. The EHC is signed in Brazil before the container leaves the plant. You raise the CHED-P in IPAFFS, declaring the commodity, the approved establishment, the EHC reference and the BCP of arrival, and you book the inspection slot. The invoice, packing list and EHC all describe the same goods.

On arrival. The consignment reaches the designated BCP. It clears the documentary check because the EHC is the right model, valid, and matches the CHED-P. Depending on the BTOM risk category, it may also face an identity or physical check — you've built that possibility into your timeline. The CDS declaration handles duty. With documents in order, the goods are released.

Where it goes wrong. Change one fact — the plant isn't listed, the EHC is an old model, the CHED-P routes to a BCP not approved for chilled POAO, the invoice description doesn't match — and the consignment stops. For chilled beef, a stop is value bleeding away by the hour. Everything in the "before it ships" column exists to prevent the "where it goes wrong" column.

How beef imports interact with duty, classification and labelling

Importing beef isn't only an SPS exercise. The commodity code you declare in CDS sets the duty and tariff treatment, and that classification must agree with how the goods are described on the EHC and CHED-P. A trade arrangement may affect the tariff, but — and this catches people out — a tariff preference does not remove the vet check. Brazilian beef still needs a CHED-P and a BCP inspection regardless of what duty applies.

Once the beef is in GB and headed for retail or food-service, labelling rules under the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) regime apply — country-of-origin, name of the food, allergens where relevant. That's a separate workstream from clearing the border, but it's the next thing the goods hit, so it's worth scoping early rather than discovering a labelling problem after the duty's paid.

The point: classification, SPS and labelling are three connected disciplines that must tell the same story about the same product. Treating them as one joined-up process — rather than three separate scrambles — is what keeps a beef supply chain moving.

Getting it right before it ships

The pattern across every held consignment is the same: the failure was set before the goods left Brazil. The establishment wasn't listed, the EHC was the wrong model or certified late, the CHED-P routed to the wrong BCP, or no one had actually booked the inspection slot. None of these can be fixed at the UK end once the container's at sea.

Borders are complicated. We aren't. We live in the detail so you don't — confirming establishment listings, checking the EHC model is current, getting the CHED-P and the BCP right, and making sure the customs classification agrees with the SPS paperwork.

Something held, or moving soon? The Falsum Helpdesk triages live customs & SPS issues — [support.falsum.co.uk](https://support.falsum.co.uk). Tell us the goods and the route, and we'll tell you exactly what you need.

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