Processed meat – uncooked

All biosecurity requirements must be met before Imported Food Inspection Scheme requirements apply.

There are no biosecurity import conditions that currently apply to uncooked ready-to-eat meat products. This means you cannot import any of these products into Australia.

Check our Biosecurity Import Conditions system (BICON) for biosecurity import conditions.

The imported food requirements specified here will only apply when an uncooked processed meat is permitted under the Biosecurity Act 2015.

We classify imported food that presents a potential medium or high risk to public health as risk food. All risk food is listed in the Imported Food Control Order 2019.

Uncooked ready-to-eat meat is classified as risk food

This includes:

• uncooked dried meat (for example, jerky, biltong)
• uncooked sausages (for example, salami, cacciatore, chorizo)
• uncooked spreadable sausages (for example, mettwurst, teewurst, schmierwurst).

It does not include uncooked slow dry cured ready-to-eat ham. For example, Iberian ham, Parma ham, Serrano ham and prosciutto.

Only uncooked ready-to-eat meat that is covered by a recognised foreign government certificate can be imported. See current certification arrangements.

Current certification arrangements

No recognised foreign government certification arrangements are currently in place.

Food safety risks

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has given us advice about the risk of uncooked ready-to-eat dried meat, sausages and spreadable sausages.

These products present a potential medium or high risk to public health for:

• Salmonella spp.
• Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC).

Uncooked ready-to-eat spreadable sausages also present a potential medium or high risk for:

• staphylococcal enterotoxin
• Listeria monocytogenes.

To make sure there are food safety controls in place to manage this hazard, imports must be covered by a recognised foreign government certificate. We verify these controls are effective by conducting analytical testing.

Glossary

Ready-to-eat

Food is ready-to-eat if it is ordinarily consumed in the same state as that in which it is sold.

To avoid doubt, food is not ordinarily consumed in the same state as that in which it is sold if, before it is consumed, it requires further processing (such as cooking) to reduce any pathogenic microorganisms potentially present in the food to safe levels.

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