Buyer resources
Specifications, buyer guides and export documentation
Two libraries sit behind this page: a searchable technical record for every one of the 80 coded products in the catalogue, and a set of buyer guides written from the EU rules and the trade practice that govern a pork consignment. Documents issued per buyer, per consignment or per destination are not published here as downloads — this page sets out what the framework requires and what a buyer states in an enquiry.
The specification library
Every product in the catalogue has a coded record here — family, customs heading, condition and preparation. Search by name, filter by family, or paste a code straight from your own system.
Catalogue code
The reference the product is identified by in the catalogue. Quoting it in an enquiry removes the ambiguity that cut names carry from one country to the next.
Product family
The catalogue family the code sits in. The coded range is grouped into 6 families, named in the filter on this page and in the catalogue itself.
Customs heading
The EU Combined Nomenclature heading recorded against the product; the coded range sits under 0203, 0206, 0209, 0504 headings. The tariff line that applies on import is set by the customs administration of the destination country.
Chilled or frozen
Whether the code is listed chilled, frozen or both: 61 of the 80 codes are listed chilled and 80 frozen. Condition governs the transport mode and part of the labelling.
Preparation
Bone and rind status, cut style and intended use, as recorded against the code. If you need something different from what the code records, set that difference out in your enquiry.
Open the specification library
The full coded range in one searchable view: 80 codes across 6 families, filterable by family and by condition, searchable by name or by code.
Cuts, grades and specification
What is actually in the carton, and how it is described on paper.
- The pork primal cuts and what each one yields How a carcass divides into leg, shoulder, loin and belly, and where each part ends up.
- What 3D, 4D, 5D and 6D mean on a pork leg The dimensional leg specifications, and which one matches the work a plant actually does.
- Trimmings 70/30 and 80/20: reading the lean-to-fat ratio What the lean-to-fat figure describes, and why it belongs in the specification and not in the order.
- How to read a pork specification sheet Field by field: what a specification commits a supplier to, and what it leaves open.
- Chilled or frozen: choosing the condition How condition changes shelf life, transport mode and the documents that travel with the goods.
Documentation, classification and customs
What has to exist on paper before a consignment can clear at destination.
- Pork customs codes, from heading 0203 onwards How chilled meat, frozen meat, offal and fat fall under different headings, and where the destination's tariff line starts.
- The document set that travels with a meat shipment Invoice, packing list, transport document, health certificate and origin evidence, and who issues each of them.
- Incoterms 2020 applied to meat imports What each rule allocates — carriage, risk transfer, the delivery point and customs formalities — and what it leaves out, such as payment terms.
- Country of origin labelling on pork What Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 1337/2013 require on pork intended for the final consumer, and what destinations add.
- Reading an EU establishment approval number What the oval identification mark carries under Regulation (EC) 853/2004, Annex II, Section I, and how to look an establishment up in the public list its competent authority keeps.
Cold chain, packing and shelf life
What protects meat between dispatch and the buyer's cold store.
- Cold chain compliance on a pork export The temperatures Regulation (EC) 853/2004 sets for meat, and the records that evidence them.
- Loading a reefer container with pork Pre-cooling, air flow, stow pattern and set point, and what fails when they are ignored.
- Shelf life of chilled and frozen pork What sets a durability date, and how much of the remaining life transit time takes.
- Vacuum packing, IWP and block frozen compared Which presentation suits retail, foodservice or processing, and what each costs in handling.
- Private label pork: what to specify in writing Artwork, legal text, batch marking and approvals: what a private label programme has to pin down.
Compliance, market entry and ordering
What has to be in place before a first shipment, and what a buyer states in an enquiry.
- Traceability requirements for meat One step back and one step forward, under Article 18 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002.
- Trichinella testing in EU pork What Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1375 lays down on official controls for Trichinella, and how the result is recorded.
- Importing pork into Asian markets Establishment listing, certificate models and label language, and the order they are resolved in.
- The Spanish pork sector, for a first-time buyer How production, cutting and export are organised, and where a cutting plant sits in that chain.
- Minimum order quantity and lead time How both are set in the meat trade, and what has to be stated before either can be fixed.
Documents issued per buyer or per destination
Some documents are written for one buyer, one consignment or one destination market, so no download can stand in for them. What follows is what each one is, who issues it, and what a buyer states in an enquiry.
The coded product list
The coded range as it stands in the catalogue: 80 codes across 6 families, 61 listed chilled and 80 frozen. The same range is browsable in the specification library.
Certification
No certification is named on this site unless a current certificate can be shown. If your specification requires a particular certification, name it in your enquiry.
How export health certification works
An export health certificate is issued by the official veterinary authority of the exporting Member State, to the certificate model agreed between the EU and the destination market, and travels with the consignment. Requirements differ by destination market.
A cut that is not in the coded range
Send a description of the cut and its intended use with your enquiry: bone and rind status, cut style, chilled or frozen, and presentation. Those are the fields a specification is written from.
Tell us what you need documented
Send the product codes, the condition and the destination market. Those three, with your volume and the Incoterms 2020 rule you work to, are what an enquiry has to state before a price can mean anything.
Request a quote
Add the product codes and state your volume, destination and required condition.
Request a quoteContact export sales
For documentation questions, destination requirements and specification requests.
Contact export salesFurther reading for buyers
View allTechnical guides covering the requirements behind this page, written for import and quality teams.
Specifications & cuts15 sources
How to read a pork specification sheet
A field-by-field guide to pork technical data sheets — cut description, bone and rind status, weight band, temperature, shelf life, packing, HS code and origin — and why the spec is the contract reference.
Export documentation12 sources
Pork HS codes explained
How HS heading 0203 divides pork into six international subheadings, what carcase, bone-in ham and "other" actually mean, and where the EU’s 8-digit CN code takes over.
Export documentation20 sources
The document set for a meat import
The documents that travel with a meat consignment, what each one proves, who issues it, and where the CHED and TRACES sit when the destination is inside the EU.