Fertilisers
Applications for an import permit for fertiliser products must be accompanied by supporting technical information. This information must be sufficient for AQIS to determine whether the product is likely to contain, or be cross-contaminated with, a disease or agent that may be harmful to the environment e.g. Australia’s ground water or soil system, It should be noted that the potential for products to cause environmental damage in Australia may differ from that in other countries.
The technical information outlined below is required for all applications including those submitted to reassess a product for an import permit:
1. Complete List of Ingredients
This must include the percentage of each ingredient to add up to 100% and each ingredient must be identified as animal, plant, microbial, chemical or mineral derived. AQIS will require confirmation on the species and country of origin of all animal derived ingredients.
If the product contains microorganisms (or ingredients derived from a fermentation process) AQIS will require:
- documentation confirming the genus and species names of all microorganisms
- a complete list of ingredients used in the fermentation media
- details of the sterilisation of the fermentation media (temperature and duration) before start of the fermentation process.
The species and country of origin of all animal derived fermentation media ingredients will also be required.
2. Flow chart outlining the production process
A flow chart must summarise all steps in the production process. This may include filtering, heating (please include temperatures and times), addition of chemicals, purification or fermentation. All treatments should include a measurement of the parameter e.g. pressure of 300psi, core temperature of 100°C, and the duration of the treatment e.g. 30 minutes.
N.B. AQIS may require documentation relating to the processing steps used in the manufacture of individual ingredients, and not just the final product.
3. Quality assurance/quality control procedures
Details of the production process, including identification of any treatments applied to raw materials (including culture substrate) and quality control checks applied during production. Special care should be taken to identify quality control checks that may be applied to demonstrate that production cultures are not cross-contaminated with foreign micro-organisms.
4. Prevention of cross-contamination prior to and during production
Steps taken prior to and during production to maintain asepsis and minimise cross-contamination of production cultures e.g. pre-sterilisation of production and handling equipment, airflow and personnel controls, product storage before and after packaging etc.
Please note: The above information (points 1–4) must be supplied in the form of a manufacturer's declaration. The declaration must be:
- from the manufacturer
- on manufacturer's letterhead (including company address and country)
- signed by a senior company employee from the site of manufacture whose name, title and contact details also appear
- dated and free from erasures and uncertified alterations (all alterations must be initialled by the senior company employee responsible for signing the declaration)
- written in English.
AQIS reserves the right to request information in addition to that outlined above once the import permit application is submitted.