Alaska seafood headed to Europe needs a new certificate starting today

Alaska processors shipping fish and shellfish to the European Union need a new health certificate for consignments arriving from today forward. Certificates issued under the old form by today remain good through Dec. 3.

What changed is what the certificate swears to. Exporters must now attest that antimicrobials were not used to promote growth or increase yield, and that drugs reserved for treating human infections were not used at all.

The paperwork runs through two agencies. Facilities upload their antibiotic non-use declarations into an FDA system, and NOAA Fisheries uses that data to issue the certificate. Alaska establishments get theirs through the state Department of Environmental Conservation's food safety office in Anchorage, which requires the request to come on or after the harvest date and the certificate to be issued before the shipment leaves.

NOAA is telling exporters to have every required piece of information ready before requesting a certificate, and gave aquaculture shippers particular warning to allow extra time during the transition.

This is on top of, not instead of, the updated EU catch certificate that exporters have been working with since January.

Industry has told NOAA that each added mandatory element on these certificates raises the risk of delayed shipments and higher costs, and smaller operators have asked for longer transition periods.