Under the IFP, foods are classified according to the potential risk to human health based on the nature of the food and historical inspection data:

- **Risk category foods:** These are foods that have been deemed to represent the highest potential risk to human health.  Currently, this category includes crustaceans, certain species of fish (for example tuna, shark and hake) and smoked fish.  All consignments are referred to the IFP.  The intensity of inspection applied to these foods depends on the compliance history of the manufacturer.  Producers whose food products consistently comply with Australian requirements will be inspected at a less intensive rate than those with a poor compliance rate.  All producers have their foods inspected at the initial rate of 100 percent of consignments.  Usually, after five consecutive consignments have passed inspection, these foods are inspected at a less intense rate of one in four consignments on a random basis.  Twenty passes must be achieved before the rate reduces to one in 20 on a random basis, providing imports continue at a steady rate.

- **Active surveillance foods:** These are identified for active surveillance in order to gather more information.  Foods in this category have, through their previous inspection history, indicated that more intensive inspection is required to determine if the food should be risk-categorised or returned to the random surveillance level (see below).  Foods in this group are inspected at a rate of approximately 10 percent by country-of-origin.

- **Random surveillance:** All other foods are subject to random surveillance.  Foods in this category are inspected at a rate of 5 percent of shipments.

In general, Nile perch falls into the category of random surveillance, although active surveillance may be applied if specific problems are detected, for example through a number of consecutive consignments that do not comply with Australian food safety requirements.

Inspection certification arrangements have been established for very few countries. In the case of fish and fishery products, agreements currently exist with Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (for cooked and frozen crustaceans and fish products only).

A Quality Assurance Agreement is an arrangement between AQIS and a company in an exporting country that has implemented a quality assurance system which ensures that the product complies with the requirements of the Imported Food Control Act 1992 and Australian Food Standards Code. Imports from such companies are subject to lower levels of border inspection, subject to a legal minimum of five percent.

To establish a Quality Assurance Agreement an exporter needs to comply with all relevant elements of ISO 9001 or ISO 9002 and be accredited by a Third Party Accreditation Body approved by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ). Further, they must implement a food safety program (based on the principle of HACCP) that is equivalent to that required for Australian processors.

Exporters must also comply with relevant Codes of Practice established by Codex Alimentarius. The entire system must be documented in a quality system manual which is reviewed by AQIS prior to approval.

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