Import compound products to Great Britain
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-19)

Understand the import rules for food products that contain multiple products of animal origin (POAO).

You must follow the guidance for importing animal products (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-or-move-food-and-drink-from-the-eu-and-northern-ireland-to-great-britain) when you import any food that contains animal products such as meat, dairy or eggs. This includes compound products.

This guidance explains additional things you need to do when importing compound products.

Compound products definition

Compound products are food products for human consumption that both:
- contain more than one product of animal origin (POAO)
- cannot be defined as composite products
The POAO can be processed or unprocessed .

Examples of compound products include:
- cured sausage that contains pork and cheese
- omelette that contains eggs and cheese
- chicken Kyiv that contains chicken and butter
- battered cheese and ham bites
Check the definition of composite products (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-or-move-composite-products-from-the-eu-and-northern-ireland-to-great-britain).

If you’re not sure if your product is a compound or composite product, contact the border control post where your product will enter the UK for confirmation.

Documents required for compound products

You need:
- a health certificate for each medium risk POAO element
- one commercial document that details all of the low risk elements
For compound products, you do not need to list the weight of each element on the health certificate or commercial document.

The details provided in part 1 of each health certificate should describe the final total product weight and packaging quantity, not the weight of the individual element.

You may also need an import licence or authorisation for some products.

Find more information on these documents in the guidance on importing animal products (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-or-move-food-and-drink-from-the-eu-and-northern-ireland-to-great-britain).

Products that contain fish

If your product contains fish or fishery products you may need a catch certificate, a processing statement and proof of storage.

Find out more in the guidance on importing fish (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-or-moving-fish-to-the-uk).

High risk food

You should check if your product contains any high risk food of non-animal origin (HRFNAO) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-high-risk-food-and-feed-not-of-animal-origin-from-the-eu-to-great-britain). If it does you’ll need to meet additional requirements.

Import notifications for compound products

Adding commodity codes and weights

For compound products, you do not need to enter the commodity code and weight for each element in your import notification on IPAFFS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-of-products-animals-food-and-feed-system). You can enter just one commodity code and weight for the whole product.

This applies to both mixed compound products (such as meatballs containing eggs) and separated compound products (such as a platter of separated cheeses and meats).

It is important that the total product weight specified in your import notification on IPAFFS, any required health certificates, and your customs declaration all match.

You do not need to know the weight of the individual elements that make up your compound product. However, if you do choose to record the weights and quantities for individual elements on IPAFFS, these should match the weights and quantities declared in your customs declaration.

Uploading multiple health certificates

All medium risk elements require a health certificate. You can upload one health certificate into the ‘health certificate’ field and any remaining health certificates into the ‘accompanying documents’ field.

When you need to submit multiple import notifications

You need to submit an additional import notification on IPAFFS if your product contains any other commodity types that require an import notification. Commodity types include plant products, high risk food and feed of non-animal origin (HRFNAO), and animal products.

For example, if your product contains HRFNAO and animal products, you need to:
- submit a CHED.D for the HRFNAO
- submit a CHED.P for the animal products
Cross-referencing notifications

If your compound product requires multiple import notifications on IPAFFS, you should include all the reference numbers in the commercial documents for each import notification.

You also need to enter these reference numbers in your customs declaration on the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) - in the field labelled ‘data element (DE) 2/3’. You should write the reference number in the following format - GBCHDyyyy.nnnnnnn.

If any reference numbers are missing, your products may be held at the border until this is resolved. Find more guidance on how to enter data into CDS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-sps-controlled-goods-that-interact-with-alvs).