Use IPAFFS to notify:

• the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) about imports of live animals and germinal products from the EU and EEA countries excluding Iceland to GB
• border control posts (BCPs) about imports of live animals from non-EU countries including Iceland to GB

You’ll need to continue to use TRACES to notify port health authorities of imports of:

• animal products and products of animal origin (POAO) into GB from non-EU countries until 6am, 7 December 2020 – you should use IPAFFS from then on
• high risk food not of animal origin (HRFNAO) into GB from non-EU countries until 6am, 14 December – you should use IPAFFS from then on

If you’re importing live animals and germinal products from the EU to Northern Ireland you must notify the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

You do not have to notify APHA of products of animal origin (POAO) coming into the UK from the EU unless there’s a safeguard measure in place.

You do not have to notify about HRFNAO coming into GB from the EU until 1 April 2021.

Find out more about moving live animals or animal products as part of EU trade.

Register for IPAFFS

If you have registered your organisation for another Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) service, you can register on IPAFFS by signing into your service. Go to your manage account screen and register on the IPAFFS service by using the ‘register for more services’ button.

Before starting registration, decide who is the responsible person to register the business or organisation.

You can use an existing Government Gateway account or create a new one. Each person must have a Government Gateway account that is personal to them. Do not share Gateway accounts.

If you’re the first person to register the business or organisation you automatically become the organisation administrator for that business. You’ll then have permission to invite and remove other team members.

Make sure that you allocate at least one other team member to an administrator account role so you can share the account management.

Registration guides

Find out how to register a business or organisation for the IPAFFS service (ODT, 11.9KB).

When to submit a notification

You must submit your notification in IPAFFS one working day before your consignment is due to arrive. You can submit your notification up to 30 days in advance.

Imports from non-EU/EEA countries: what you need to submit a notification

You need to know:

• what you’re importing
• the date and the estimated time the consignment will arrive at the border control post
• which country it will come from and the country in which it is consigned if they are different
• the consignment’s destination

Imports from the EU/EEA countries: what you need to submit a notification

You need to know:

• what you’re importing
• the date of import into GB
• which country it will come from the consignment’s place of destination