Importing matcha and green tea: when does it need a CHED-D, increased official controls and lab testing at the GB border?

Importing matcha and green tea: when does it need a CHED-D, increased official controls and lab testing at the GB border?

No animal product means no CHED-P — but it doesn't mean no CHED. High-risk non-animal food has its own pre-notification: the CHED-D.

If you import matcha or green tea from Japan, China or anywhere else in Asia, that distinction decides whether your consignment moves on schedule or sits at a border control post (BCP) waiting on a lab. Tea isn't a product of animal origin (POAO), so the SPS controls you might know from meat or dairy don't apply in the same way. But certain teas — by commodity code and by country of origin — sit on the list of products of non-animal origin subject to increased official controls at the GB border. When that's the case, you need a CHED-D, you face identity and physical checks, and you can be selected for pesticide residue testing before release. This piece walks through exactly when that happens, what each step requires, and how to plan for it before the goods sail.

A note before we start: this is practical trade guidance, not regulated legal advice. The controls and lists below change — sometimes quietly. Always check the current position for your specific commodity code and origin on GOV.UK, or ask us.

What is a CHED-D, and how is it different from a CHED-P?

A CHED-D is the Common Health Entry Document for feed and food of non-animal origin that is subject to increased official controls. You raise it in IPAFFS before the goods arrive. It's the non-animal-origin counterpart to the CHED-P, which covers products of animal origin (POAO) like meat, dairy and fish.

The CHED is the pre-notification and entry document that tells the authorities a controlled consignment is coming and lets them decide what checks to run. There are four types, and the letter matters:

• CHED-A — live animals.
• CHED-P — products of animal origin (POAO): meat, dairy, fish, honey, eggs.
• CHED-PP — plants and plant products under phytosanitary controls.
• CHED-D — feed and food of non-animal origin under increased official controls.

Tea is a food of non-animal origin. So when it's caught by controls, the document you raise is a CHED-D — not a CHED-P. This is the single most common point of confusion for tea importers: they look for the meat-and-dairy SPS process, don't find tea on it, and assume there's nothing to do. The control that catches tea lives in a different list and uses a different document.

Per GOV.UK's guidance on importing high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin, the CHED-D is raised through IPAFFS (the Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System), the same platform exporters and importers use for other pre-notifications.

When does matcha or green tea actually need a CHED-D?

Matcha and green tea need a CHED-D when the specific commodity code, for the specific country of origin, appears on the list of products of non-animal origin subject to increased official controls. It is not "all tea, always." It is "this code, from this country" — and GOV.UK publishes exactly which combinations are caught.

Two variables decide everything:

1. The commodity code you declare for the product. Green tea, black tea, flavoured tea and tea extracts can sit under different codes, and only some are listed.
2. The country of origin. The increased-controls list is origin-specific. A green tea from one country can be listed while the same product type from another is not.

This origin sensitivity is why matcha from Japan and green tea from China are not automatically treated the same. The controls regime targets specific origin/commodity combinations where there is an identified risk — historically, for various teas, that risk has centred on pesticide residues. Whether your particular tea is caught depends on what GOV.UK lists today, against the code and origin on your entry.

The legal architecture sits in retained EU law on official controls (the Official Controls Regulation as retained in GB law), with the lists of caught products and their check frequencies maintained and amended by Defra. Enforcement at the border is carried out by port health authorities and, for relevant categories, APHA.

The honest summary: do not assume. Take the exact commodity code you intend to declare, take the country of origin, and check both against the current increased-official-controls list before you book the shipment. If you're unsure which code applies — and tea classification is genuinely fiddly — that's worth resolving first, because the code drives the control.

What do "increased official controls" mean in practice?

Increased official controls mean a consignment faces more than the standard documentary review. At the BCP it can be subject to documentary checks, identity checks and physical checks — and for caught teas, the physical check often includes sampling for laboratory analysis, typically pesticide residue testing, at a set frequency.

Break that into the three check types:

• Documentary check — the authority reviews your CHED-D and supporting paperwork. This happens on every caught consignment.
• Identity check — they confirm the goods that arrived match what the documents describe (labels, marks, commodity).
• Physical check — they inspect the goods themselves and, where the regime requires it, draw a sample for lab analysis.

The crucial word is frequency. Increased official controls are applied at a defined percentage rate, not to every single consignment. A commodity/origin combination might be listed at, say, a given physical-and-identity-check frequency — meaning a proportion of consignments are pulled for physical inspection and sampling, while others clear on documents. GOV.UK publishes the frequency that applies to each listed commodity and origin.

This is why "it cleared fine last time" is not a safeguard. If your tea sits at a partial check frequency, last shipment may simply not have been selected. This one might be. And the list and frequencies are reviewed and amended periodically — a commodity safe last quarter can be added, and a frequency can be raised. Plan for the check, don't gamble on the percentage.

What happens if my consignment is held for testing?

If your consignment is selected for sampling, it is held at the BCP pending the laboratory result. The goods cannot be released into free circulation until the analysis confirms the consignment is compliant — typically that pesticide residues are within the permitted maximum residue levels (MRLs).

For tea, this is where the operational cost lands. Lab turnaround takes time, and your consignment sits in temperature-appropriate storage at the port while you wait. For a fixed-shelf-life product, that wait eats into saleable life. The bill is the storage and demurrage, but the real exposure is shelf-life and, if a result fails, the consignment itself.

What a fail means depends on the finding — options can range from rejection and re-export to destruction, and you'll be working with the port health authority on the outcome. This is precisely the scenario to plan for before the goods sail: know your check frequency, know your likely turnaround, and have storage and shelf-life headroom that survives a hold. If a test result is contested or a compliance question is finely balanced, get professional sign-off — this is the point where guesswork is expensive.

What documents and information do I need to import tea correctly?

To import matcha or green tea under increased official controls you need, at minimum: the correct commodity code, the country of origin, a CHED-D raised in IPAFFS ahead of arrival, the commercial and transport documents, and an arrival booking at an appropriate BCP. The exact pack depends on the commodity and route.

A practical checklist for a caught tea consignment:

• Commodity classification — the correct code for the specific tea (green, flavoured, extract, matcha as a powder), confirmed before you commit, because it determines whether and how the controls apply.
• Country of origin — established and documented; origin drives the listing and the check frequency.
• CHED-D in IPAFFS — raised before arrival, with enough lead time for the authority to plan checks. Late or missing pre-notification is itself a cause of holds.
• A nominated BCP — the consignment must arrive at a border control post designated to handle that category of goods. Your freight forwarder books the entry, but confirming the goods route through an appropriate BCP is something to verify, not assume.
• Commercial documents — invoice, packing list, and any supplier documentation on treatment or testing already carried out.
• Customs declaration — the import declaration on CDS (the Customs Declaration Service), with duty and any reliefs handled separately from the SPS-style control. The CHED-D is the health control; the CDS entry is the customs side. Both have to be right.

One responsibility point worth stating plainly: your freight forwarder lodges the entry, but knowing whether your matcha triggers a CHED-D and increased official controls is your call as the importer. The forwarder moves the box; the compliance position is yours.

A worked example: a matcha consignment from Asia, end to end

Take a brand owner importing matcha powder from Asia for the retail and hospitality market. Here's the decision path, run through the mechanisms above.

Step one — classify. Before anything else, settle the commodity code for the matcha as it's presented (a green tea powder). The code is the key that unlocks the rest, because the increased-controls list is keyed to codes and origins. Get this wrong and every downstream decision is built on sand.

Step two — check the list. Take that code and the country of origin and check them against the current GOV.UK list of products of non-animal origin under increased official controls. Two outcomes:

• Not listed for this code/origin: standard import controls apply. No CHED-D on this basis. You still handle the customs declaration on CDS and any other applicable rules.
• Listed: you're into the CHED-D and check-frequency regime. Continue.

Step three — plan the pre-notification. Raise the CHED-D in IPAFFS ahead of arrival, routing the goods to an appropriate BCP. Build the lead time in.

Step four — plan for the check. Identify the check frequency that applies. Assume this consignment could be the one selected for physical check and pesticide residue sampling. Ask: if it's held for lab analysis, does my storage plan and shelf-life survive the wait? For a perishable-value product, this is the question that protects the margin.

Step five — clear or wait. Documentary check on arrival. If selected, identity and physical checks plus sampling; the goods are held pending the lab result. If within MRLs, release. If not, you're into the rejection/re-export/destruction conversation with port health.

Step six — the customs side, in parallel. The CDS declaration, the commodity code's duty rate, and any relief run alongside the health control. The CHED-D doesn't clear the customs entry, and the customs entry doesn't clear the CHED-D. Both have to land.

Run that path before you book freight, and the BCP becomes a planned step rather than a nasty surprise.

How does this interact with commodity codes, labelling and customs?

The CHED-D control doesn't sit in isolation — it's one strand of getting a tea import right alongside classification, the customs declaration on CDS, and your retail labelling obligations. Each is a separate workstream, and a problem in any one can hold or cost the consignment.

Three adjacent points worth flagging:

• Commodity codes drive both duty and whether the increased-controls regime catches you. Tea classification has real subtleties — green versus flavoured, leaf versus powder, tea versus extract — and the code you pick has consequences on two fronts at once. It's worth getting it confirmed rather than carried over from a previous shipment.
• Labelling. Once the tea is cleared, what goes on the pack for the GB market is governed by food information rules (the retained Food Information to Consumers regime, FIC) — name, ingredients, allergens where relevant, business address, and so on. Matcha sold as a consumer product carries the same labelling duties as any food. Build that in before print, not after clearance.
• Customs and reliefs. The CDS declaration is the customs control. Depending on what you're doing with the tea — resale, further manufacture, re-export — there may be duty considerations and reliefs worth looking at. That's a separate question from the health control, and it pays to handle both deliberately.

The thread through all of it: the commodity code and the origin are the two facts that ripple through customs, controls and labelling alike. Get them pinned down early and the rest of the process has firm ground to stand on.

Bringing it together

Matcha and green tea aren't products of animal origin, so the meat-and-dairy SPS process doesn't apply — but that's not the same as "no controls." When your specific commodity code and country of origin appear on the increased-official-controls list, you need a CHED-D in IPAFFS, you face documentary, identity and physical checks at the BCP, and you can be selected for pesticide residue testing that holds the consignment pending results. The two facts that decide it are the code and the origin. The list and frequencies change, so check the current position before each season's shipments rather than relying on last time.

Sort the CHED-D and the sampling plan before the consignment sails, not when it arrives — a hold on a fixed-shelf-life product compounds by the hour.

Something held, or moving soon? The Falsum Helpdesk triages live customs and SPS issues. Tell us the goods and the route — we'll tell you exactly what you need. → support.falsum.co.uk

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