Foodstuffs of animal origin include meat and meat products, milk, milk-based products, fishery products, bird’s eggs and egg products, apiculture products and frog legs and snails. 'Import' means import of foodstuffs of animal origin from outside the EU ('third countries') to the EU. Imports of foodstuffs of animal origin from Norway and fishery products from Iceland are, however, not considered as third country imports but as internal market imports in the same way as when importing foodstuffs from other EU countries.

There are some differences in the import conditions depending on whether we are concerned with commercial import, import of samples or foodstuffs brought by a passenger or sent to a private person as a postal parcel. For the most part the conditions for third country imports have been harmonised in the EU legislation so that, with certain exceptions, the same import conditions apply to all Member States. However, as regards certain food imports which have not been harmonised across the EU the Member States set down conditions of their own. Such unharmonised foodstuffs include reptile meat and colostrum and colostrum products and live freshwater crayfish. In the Finnish legislation import of foodstuffs of animal origin with no harmonised conditions is subject to import licence granted by the Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira).

You should always check the import conditions when importing foodstuffs of animal origin to the EU from non-EU countries!