Frequent questions regarding pet supplements

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA’s) update to import policies regarding finished, retail-ready pet supplements is scheduled for June 24, 2024. To help ease this transition, here are answers to some of the most common questions that have been received by the Animal Products and By-Products Team.

 

1. Vitamin and Mineral premixes

New import coding has been created for bulk vitamin and/or mineral premixes, for the end use of pet food manufacture. These premixes can have Vitamin A and/or Vitamin D, but no other animal origin ingredients, and are permitted from any country with a copy of the label or list of ingredients from the manufacturer. They can be declared under 23 09 90 6274.
 

2. Mixtures

There are too many mixtures available commercially to have import coding for each possibility. When there is no coding available, use the Animal Products and By-Products’ policy on mixtures (from Section 9 of the Import Policy Framework) to consider each ingredient separately. For example, a mix of chondroitin and rice flour from the United States would be approved for chondroitin of porcine origin under 30 01 90 1676 14, and approved for rice flour under 11 01 90 7176.

If a commodity contains one animal-origin ingredient mixed with one or more non-animal-origin ingredients (for example, 40% poultry meal and 60% plant-origin ingredients) the conditions that would apply to the single animal-origin ingredient on its own would apply to the commodity as a whole
 

3. Rendered products

According to section 166 of the Health of Animals Act, all products of a rendering plant require an import permit for entry into Canada. This also applies to mixtures containing a product of a rendering plant. They must originate from a country whose rendering facility has been evaluated and approved by the CFIA.

For non-ruminant material, the approved countries are:

• Australia
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

For ruminant rendered material, the only countries approved are:

• Australia
• New Zealand

Currently, information about rendered products is available in Section 10.5 of the Import Policy Framework.

If your company has been mistakenly importing rendered materials without an import permit, we urge you to apply for one at MyCFIA as soon as possible to ensure compliance.
 

4. Import coding

There have been several questions about how to declare products that were previously imported under coding for pet supplements. The CFIA would like to remind industry that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the final authority on tariff classification and therefore applying for an advanced ruling is always the best practice. Your broker can also help you to find the proper coding to declare your products under.

That said, please be aware of the following common products and their coding:

• Milk replacers (containing milk ingredients as the only animal-origin ingredients):
• 23 09 90 1575 08
• Rendered materials such as meat digest, meat and bone meal, spray dried blood:
• 05 11 99 1995 or 23 01 10 1995
• Chondroitin sulphate:
• 30 01 90 1676, 2nd level OGD depends on species

We hope this information is helpful to you and will help you to prepare for these upcoming changes. If you have any questions about these changes, please contact the Animal Products and By-Products import inbox at APABPImport@inspection.gc.ca. For routine inquiries, your local CFIA office continues to be your first point of contact.