Article 53 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 provides for the possibility to adopt appropriate Union emergency measures for feed and food imported from a third country in order to protect human health, animal health and the environment, where the risk cannot be contained satisfactorily by means of measures taken by the Member States individually.

Amongst other, an increased frequency of official controls on import has been established for more than two years on groundnuts from India as regards aflatoxins, curry leaves from India as regards pesticide residues, groundnuts from Ghana as regards aflatoxins and watermelon seeds from Nigeria as regards aflatoxins and for nearly two years on okras from India as regards pesticide residues.

The results from the of increased frequency of controls show a continuous high frequency of non-compliance with maximum levels of aflatoxins and maximum residue levels of pesticide residues established in Union legislation and several times very high levels were observed. These results provide evidence that the import of these foods and feeds constitute a risk for animal and human health. No improvement of the situation could be observed after this period of increased frequency of controls at Union borders. Furthermore, no concrete and satisfactory action plan to remediate the shortcomings and deficiencies in the production and control systems was received from the Indian, Nigerian and Ghanaian authorities, despite the explicit request from the European Commission.

To protect human and animal health in the Union, it is necessary to provide for additional guarantees in relation to those food and feed from India, Ghana and Nigeria. All consignments of groundnuts from India and Ghana, watermelon seeds from Nigeria and curry leaves and okras from India should therefore be accompanied by a certificate stating that the products have been sampled and analysed for the presence of, according to the case, aflatoxins or pesticide residues and have been found compliant with Union legislation.

For the protection of public and animal health compound feed and food containing to a significant amount the feed and food covered by this Regulation should also be included in the scope of the Regulation.

In order to ensure an efficient organisation of the official controls, it is furthermore appropriate that the ‘first point of introduction’ referred to in Regulation (EC) No 1152/2009 is replaced by ‘designated point of entry’ as defined in Regulation (EC) No 669/2009.

With a view to minimise negative effects on trade and to enable the competent authorities of India, Ghana and Nigeria to set up an appropriate control system, it is appropriate to provide that the requirement of a health certificate only applies to consignments of products covered by this Regulation which have left the country of origin after a certain date. It is important for the protection of human and animal health to keep this period as short as possible.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,