Written for supermarket category managers, private-label and controlled-brand managers, and QSR or foodservice buyers. Shiiv Imports Pty Ltd trades as Shiiv Imports. We are a sourcing agent, importer and private-label builder, not a manufacturer. The partner plant makes the food. We help keep the commercial file aligned with the brief before a container is booked, beside the checks before you range and the traceability file. Public email sales@shiv-impex.com. The desks are in Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Ahmedabad, India and Texas, USA.
Two Acts, two clearances
Food imported for sale in Australia meets two Commonwealth regimes. The Biosecurity Act 2015 deals with pests and diseases. The Imported Food Control Act 1992 deals with food safety for human health. This note covers the second: the Imported Food Inspection Scheme, which the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry administers. DAFF's 2024 inspection report states that the importer is legally responsible for food imported for sale. On lines we import, that responsibility sits with Shiiv Imports Pty Ltd. The factory owns the formulation. The buyer owns the ranging decision.
How a line is sorted
DAFF runs the scheme on risk food, surveillance food, and compliance-agreement food. Risk food is listed in the Imported Food Control Order 2019, on FSANZ advice that it poses a medium or high risk to public health. Other food, outside a compliance agreement, is surveillance food. Every risk-food consignment is referred. The rate follows the producer, the country of origin and the tariff code. It starts at 100 per cent, falls to 25 per cent after five consecutive passes, and to 5 per cent after a further 20. A fail returns it to 100 per cent. Risk food that must carry a recognised certificate is inspected at 5 per cent while the certificate is accepted. A fail returns that rate to 100 per cent until five consecutive passes, then back to 5 per cent. The 2024 report cites beef, bivalve molluscs, and ready-to-eat berries and pomegranate arils as examples.
Surveillance food is referred at random through the Integrated Cargo System, at 5 per cent. A fail brings a holding order, and later consignments move to 100 per cent until compliance is shown, normally after five consecutive passes. DAFF's page for all other food and beverages treats that group as surveillance food, with a visual and label assessment and no analytical test on that page. Every inspected consignment still has a visual and label assessment, and other foods can be sampled. DAFF issues a Food Control Certificate when inspection applies. Referred food stays on hold and cannot be distributed, so the pause belongs in the lead time from sample to first purchase order.
A second plant starts a new history
The history sits on the producer, the origin and the tariff. A second plant, or the same recipe from another country, starts its own count. For private label, lock the plant named on the specification before artwork and the first purchase order. A catalogue line asks the same question: whether that producer already has passes on that tariff.
Where a partner factory holds HACCP, or a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, the certificate belongs to that site and scope. GFSI benchmarks schemes. It does not certify the plant, and it does not clear a container. Shiiv Imports holds ISO 9001 for sourcing, supplier selection and the file. The quality page sets out how that file is held.
What a fail does to the ranging date
Food that fails cannot be released. A label fail can be relabelled. Otherwise the food is destroyed or re-exported under an authorised officer. The Imported Food Inspection Advice sets the options. Later imports of the same food, producer and country return to 100 per cent inspection until compliance is shown.
In calendar 2024, 98.5 per cent of inspected food complied. Labels were the main source of non-compliance, and 4.3 per cent of inspected lines were surveillance food already under a holding order. Label and composition assessments complied at 97 per cent. Among labels that failed, DAFF reported nutrition details at 26.5 per cent, ingredient lists at 18.5 per cent, mandatory warning statements at 17.7 per cent, importer details at 15.8 per cent, and country of origin at 12.2 per cent. Build the nutrition panel, the allergen declaration and the origin statement before the inspection is booked. DAFF's step-by-step guide allows labelling after arrival, before distribution or before inspection. Food waiting on an inspection cannot be sold. A retail pack and a foodservice pack are checked on their own labels.
A compliance agreement is a different path
A Food Import Compliance Agreement is made under section 35A of the Imported Food Control Act 1992. DAFF audits the importer's food safety system instead of referring those foods to the scheme. At the end of 2024, 42 agreements were in place. An agreement covers the foods named in it. It is separate from ISO 9001 and from any certificate at the factory. Ask which path the line will use.
New Zealand is mostly outside this scheme
The 2024 report notes that much food imported from New Zealand sits outside the Imported Food Control Act, following the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement signed in 1996. The Order currently applies the Act to beef, beef products, ready-to-eat cassava chips and brown seaweed from New Zealand. Other origins keep the ordinary referral rules. Keep lot identity on the traceability file either way.
Before you range
Check the file before the purchase order.
- Whether the line is risk food, surveillance food, or compliance-agreement food.
- The producer, country of origin and tariff the compliance history will use.
- For risk food without a recognised certificate, room in the plan for 100 per cent referral on the early consignments.
- A label file that can survive a label assessment: nutrition panel, ingredient list, warning statements, importer details and origin.
- Who acts if the result is a fail, and the lot identity a holding order would use.
Send the product, the pack, the channel and the producer with a sourcing brief, or a private-label brief. We reply the same business day.
Questions buyers ask
Does every imported grocery line get inspected?
No. Surveillance food is referred at 5 per cent unless a holding order applies. Risk food follows the compliance history, or 5 per cent where a recognised certificate applies. Much New Zealand food sits outside the scheme, with the exceptions in the Order.
Does a pass at one plant cover a second plant?
No. The history is the producer, the country of origin and the tariff code. A new producer starts again.
Is a Food Import Compliance Agreement the same as ISO 9001?
No. A Food Import Compliance Agreement is an agreement with the department under the Imported Food Control Act 1992. Shiiv Imports holds ISO 9001 for sourcing and the file. Neither one is a plant food-safety certificate.
Can the label be fixed after the food arrives?
Before the inspection is booked, DAFF allows labelling to be corrected after biosecurity clearance. Food waiting on inspection cannot be sold. After a label fail, the options are to relabel and reinspect, or to destroy or re-export under supervision.
Shiiv Imports Insights. Shiiv Imports Pty Ltd (ABN 15 158 243 442 / ACN 158 243 442). Trading name Shiiv Imports. Public email sales@shiv-impex.com. Cities: Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Ahmedabad, India, Texas, USA. Sources: DAFF, Imported Food Inspection Scheme; DAFF, Imported food inspection data: January to December 2024 (published 2025); DAFF, how to import food; DAFF, all other food and beverages.