Food Industry Customs Declarations: Secure Your Import-Export Flows

The food industry is France's leading industrial sector, with 93.5 billion euros in exports in 2024. But it is also one of the most exposed to customs complexity. Every import or export operation involving foodstuffs requires a dual demand: that of standard customs formalities, and that of the health and phytosanitary inspections specific to food products. For supply chain managers and logistics teams, the slightest error on a food industry customs declaration can lead to a hold-up at a border inspection post, the immobilization of a refrigerated container, or even the destruction of perishable goods.

Why Customs Formalities Are More Complex in the Food Industry

Unlike other industrial sectors, the food industry combines two regulatory layers that add to each other. The first is customs regulations in the strict sense: declaration, tariff classification, customs duties, and agricultural levies. The second is sanitary and phytosanitary regulation, supervised by several bodies (DGAL, SIVEP, DGCCRF) that impose specific checks depending on the nature of the product and its country of origin.

In practice, an import of beef does not follow the same path as an import of dried fruit or palm oil. Each product family has its own documentary requirements: veterinary certificates for products of animal origin, phytosanitary certificates for plants, Common Entry Document (CED) for goods subject to enhanced controls. Tariff nomenclatures in the food industry are among the most detailed in the TARIC, with duties that vary according to species, degree of processing, and geographical origin.

Added to this are new obligations such as the EUDR anti-deforestation regulation, which since late 2025 requires enhanced traceability for cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, and beef. The regulatory context continues to tighten, and each development translates into new fields to be completed in declarations.

The Controls That Slow Down Your Operations

Where a standard industrial product clears customs within a few hours, a foodstuff can be held up for several days if health checks are not anticipated. Products of animal origin must mandatorily pass through a border inspection post (BIP) for a veterinary check. Plant-derived foodstuffs subject to EU emergency measures go through enhanced controls with laboratory analyses before any release for free circulation.

Since June 2023, the transfer of import controls from the DGCCRF to customs has modified the circuits. The FRANCE SESAME platform now centralizes the monitoring of formalities related to sanitary and phytosanitary goods, and the European system TRACES-NT manages the traceability of veterinary controls at the point of entry into the Union.

For fresh or frozen products, a 48-hour hold-up in a customs zone can mean the loss of an entire cargo. Beyond the direct cost of the goods, the entire supply chain is impacted: production stock shortages, customer delivery delays, contractual penalties. Responsiveness in food industry customs operations is not an advantage — it is a condition of operational survival.

How to Make Your Food Industry Customs Declarations More Reliable

Reliability rests on three pillars. The first is tariff classification, which must be rigorous and kept up to date. In the food industry, an error in a tariff heading can change the customs duty rate, trigger an unexpected physical inspection, or invalidate a health certificate. The second pillar is continuous regulatory monitoring: SPS measures, agricultural tariff quotas (AGRIM), changes in pesticide maximum residue limits (MRLs), new requirements in destination countries. The third is the integration of customs flows with the company's information systems (ERP, TMS) to avoid re-keying and manual errors.

Customeo addresses all three challenges by combining the expertise of registered customs representatives (RDE) specialized in the food industry with a platform connected in real time to customs and health systems. The embedded AI assists with tariff classification on complex food nomenclatures. Bidirectional integration with TRACES-NT and the Delta I/E systems enables real-time tracking of each operation, from filing the declaration to the release of the goods.

The results are measurable: 99% declarative compliance, clearance release obtained in an average of 45 minutes, and more than 8 hours freed up per week for internal teams. The platform also manages the complete documentary traceability required by IFS, BRC, and ISO 22000 standards, with a response time of a few seconds to reconstruct the complete history of a batch in the event of a RASFF alert.

In a sector where controls strengthen every year and where the slightest non-conformity can cost an entire cargo, securing your customs operations is no longer optional. Customeo supports food industry operators with a solution that combines professional expertise and real-time technology. Request an initial audit of your customs flows to identify your optimization levers.