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Certification Requirements - France

Last update: 14/06/06

European Union (EU) Requirements

Note: These requirements/statements are specific. See European Union (above) for common EU requirements.

Labelling:

Additional Labelling Requirements - France

All shipping documents accompanying the goods must be in French.

List of commercial names of marine and fresh water products permitted in France, in accordance with Community legislation (regulation (EC) n^o 2065-2001) (in French only)

Additional Labelling and Packaging Requirements for Live Bivalve Molluscs

Products must be labelled (in French):

"Only for direct human consumption"
« Pour consommation humaine directe uniquement »

or

"Not for relaying or depuration"
« Non destiné au reparcage ni à la purification ».

Tolerances/Guidelines

Additional Chemical Guidelines - France

Maximum pesticide levels for freshwater fish:

D.D.T. (Total): 2.0 ppm
HCH (Lindane): 0.3 ppm
HCB: 0.3 ppm
Dieldrin: 0.15 ppm
Endrin: 0.3 ppm
Mirex: 0.1 ppm
PCB (Total): 2.0 ppm

Where there are no guidelines for contaminants in fish, the French authorities will adopt the lowest existing tolerance set by a member country of the EU.

Scallop meat:

Soaking is prohibited. Any product suspected of being soaked in water is subject to testing by the French authorities for the Humidity/Protein ratio and the result must be less than 5.

Microbiological Guidelines

Additional Microbiological Guidelines - France

Note: Not applied at border inspection posts.

⁽¹⁾ Recovery of the initial suspensions of pasteurised semi-preserved samples for two hours at room temperature and non-pasteurised semi-preserved samples for thirty to forty minutes at room temperature.
⁽²⁾ Special case for salted anchovies: anaerobic sulf. reducers 46 °C: less than 10 per gram.
⁽³⁾ Enumerate in seawater or 3.5% salt water and incubate at 20 °C for five days.

Certification Requirement

Fish and Fishery Products (excluding live bivalve molluscs and echinoderms):

EU/Canada Health Certificate

This is done by crossing out either the words "fishery/de la pêche/" or "aquaculture/de l'aquaculture/" that do not apply to the product being shipped.

Certification of Live Lobster (not aquacultured):

The following statement (in French) must be added to all certificates issued for live lobster:

"The live fish contained within were caught in the wild and are destined for human consumption."

« Le poisson vivant du présent envoi a été capturé à l'état sauvage et est destiné à la consommation humaine. »

Certification of Live Bivalve Molluscs, Echinoderms, Tunicates and Marine Gastropods

Exporters must appear on the "List of Canadian Exporters of Live Shellfish, Live Tunicates, Live Echinoderms or Live Gastropods Intended for France".