Poultry meat that is cooked and ready-to-eat

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

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

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.

Poultry meat that is cooked and ready-to-eat is classified as risk food

This includes cooked poultry meat that has undergone minimal processing steps, such as fillets or pieces that have been:

• sliced
• diced
• cut
• marinated
• flavoured.

Poultry includes fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigeons, pheasants, quails, guinea fowls, muttonbirds and other avian species ordinarily consumed as food by humans. It does not include ratites (for example emus and ostriches).

Exclusions

• Poultry meat that is retorted and shelf stable 
• Food from New Zealand

Note: Ready-to-eat cooked chicken meat from New Zealand is the only poultry meat that can be imported into Australia.

Community Protection (CP) question

You will need to answer this CP question when lodging your full import declaration:

IFIS: Are the goods cooked poultry meat that is chilled or frozen and is ready to eat?

Inspection and testing

We refer consignments of ready-to-eat cooked poultry meat for analytical testing. During inspection, we will also conduct a visual and label assessment.

Table 1 shows the test that will be applied and permitted results.

Table 1, Test applied and permitted result

n = the minimum number of sample units that must be examined from a lot of food.
c = the maximum allowable number of defective sample units.
m = the acceptable microbiological level in a sample unit.

Food safety risks

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has given us advice about the risk of poultry meat that is cooked and ready-to-eat. These products present a medium or high risk to public health for Listeria monocytogenes.

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.

Retorted

Animal products are retorted if they are heated in a hermetically sealed container to a minimum core temperature of 100°C, obtaining an F⁰ value of at least 2.8.

Shelf stable

Goods are shelf stable if the:

• goods have been commercially manufactured
• goods have been packaged by the manufacturer
• goods are in that package
• package has not been opened or broken
• goods are able to be stored in the package at room or ambient temperature; and
• goods do not require refrigeration or freezing before the package is opened.

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