Food Export Health Certificates

Any food business based in Richmond, which exports food and drink to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) may be require to provide a Food Export Health Certificate by the country of destination. These certificates confirm that a specific business complies with all relevant legislation and the food produced is without risk to health. Certificates are only required where foods are exported to countries outside the EEA. 

Information required 

Typical information required for the export certificate is as follows:

• Manufacturer
• Minimum durability
• Storage conditions
• Export approval number
• Consignor
• Consignee
• Destination
• Product
• Quantity
• Country of origin
• Date of production
• Packaging
• Batch number (where appropriate).

You should note that it is the exporter's responsibility to ensure that the destination country's requirements are met. 

How to apply 

Once you have established the destination country’s requirements you should contact us at foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk and provide us with this information.

We will prepare a draft certificate for your approval. You should allow 5 working days for this. A same day service is available.

Once you have approved the final draft of your certificate you should email us and we will call you to arrange payment.

When we have received your payment you can either collect the certificate from our offices in Twickenham at Civic Centre or receive a copy in the post. 

Charges

Certificates currently cost £154 each. These will be completed within 5 working days, often less.

For same day turn around expedited health certificate for exported food, the cost is £210.

For full details of this, please contact the food safety team at foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk

Alterations and redrafts will incur an additional charge of £90. 

Ways to pay

By debit card

We will contact you by phone to enable you to make a debit card payment.

Further information

You should note that we will not supply a certificate unless you have registered your food business and we can vouch for the safety of any individual batch/consignment of food.

We may need to inspect your business to verify that the food is produced in compliance with UK legislation and may make additional checks, depending on the required wording of the certificate. This may incur an additional charge dependent on the time involved.

Contact

For further information contact us:

• Email: foodandsafety@merton.gov.uk 
• Telephone: 020 8545 3025 

Post:

Food and Safety 
Regulatory Services Partnership 
2nd floor Merton Civic Offices 
London Road 
SM4 5DX