Serbia adopted a decree on a new procedure for “official sampling of food and feed of plant and mixed origin at import”. The number of imported food and feed samples will be drastically decreased to approximately 150 controls per month, compared to the previous procedure which sampled every shipment (about 8,000-10,000 controls per month).
Imported food and feed products that will continue to be sampled at the border will be: products imported for the first time into Serbia; products that have changed their labels; products not tested in the country of origin for more than six months; or, products coming from countries which have been identified as high risk based on prior problems. According to this decree, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, grain and milling products, raw coffee and teas will be sampled every three months regardless of the country of origin. According to the decree the importer must provide the following required import documents: an invoice, the specifications of the imported products, a customs declaration, information on the destination of the goods until the customs procedure is completed, any prior official reports regarding the same type of product, and any official results from prior sampling of the same type of product.
By establishing these new procedures, Serbia is reducing costs and import processing times, as well as continuing to harmonize domestic legislation with international standards per Serbia’s Food Safety Law adopted in 2009 (“Official Gazette” no. 41/2009).
