CFIA AIRS Chapter 05 Update — UK Animal-Origin Goods End-Use Conditions Changed June 10

What Changed

CFIA published Chapter 05 updates to the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) on June 10, 2026. The change affects HS codes 05.10.00.1286 and 05.11.99.5345 — animal bile, glands, organs, and animal-origin ingredients — when the country of origin is the United Kingdom and the declared end use is “Other end uses” (i.e. not pet food, not for feed, not for fertilizer).

The species breakdown covers avian, bovine, caprine, cervid, equine, ovine, porcine, and lagomorph. If you’ve been filing these codes under a standing CFIA permit or auto-release assumption, you need to pull a fresh AIRS query before the next CAD goes in.

Why This Matters for CAD Filing

AIRS governs whether CFIA wants a permit, a certificate, an inspection hold, or nothing at all. When the end-use condition changes mid-year, your broker’s standing instruction file can go stale without warning. We saw this in 2024 when CFIA toggled poultry fat end-use logic for EU origins — half a dozen CADs were filed clean, CBSA released the goods, then CFIA issued retroactive compliance letters three weeks later because the permit should have been on file at time of release.

The June 10 update doesn’t say whether the new condition is more or less restrictive than before. CFIA publishes the delta, not the narrative. You have to compare the old Chapter 05 snapshot to the new one, line by line, to figure out if your UK bone stock shipment now needs a zoo sanitary certificate or if it just dropped off the permit list entirely.

If your supply chain includes UK suppliers of glands, bile, or dried organ powder for pharma, nutraceutical, or industrial enzyme use, this is the week to reconcile your AIRS pull with your actual shipment pipeline. Don’t wait until a container is three days into CFIA hold at the CFS to discover the permit should have been arranged before departure.

HS 0510 and 0511 in Practice

These two six-digit headings cover animal products not elsewhere specified: ambergris, castoreum, civet, musk, cantharides, bile, glands, organs for pharmaceutical or industrial use, plus bones, horn-cores, powder, and waste. Most of it arrives as industrial input or raw material for extraction, not consumer goods.

The eight-digit breakout in AIRS (05.10.00.1286.01 through .10, and 05.11.99.5345.01 onward) splits by species because BSE, avian influenza, and FMD risk profiles differ. A bovine gland shipment from the UK carries different veterinary history than a porcine one, even if both are headed to the same Montreal compounding facility.

CFIA has always been surgical about end-use declarations. “Pet food” has a different AIRS pathway than “industrial enzyme extraction,” even when the commodity description on the commercial invoice looks identical. If your CAD declares “other end uses” and the product fits one of the updated codes, expect the AIRS result to differ from last month.

What to Do This Week

Pull a fresh AIRS query for every UK-origin HS 0510 / 0511 SKU you import under “other end uses.” Compare the June 10 result to your last successful release. If the permit or certificate requirement changed, notify your UK supplier now so they can arrange the right export documentation before the next shipment.

If you have goods in transit that were booked and invoiced before June 10, CBSA and CFIA generally apply the AIRS conditions in force at time of importation (arrival), not time of sale. A June 15 arrival falls under the new rules, even if the purchase order was signed in May. Your broker should be checking AIRS within 24 hours of the cargo control number hitting eManifest, not relying on a static template from Q1.

For standing purchase orders with UK suppliers — especially if you’re an NRI structure where the exporter is also the CARM importer of record — make sure your commercial invoice template and your supplier’s export health certificate SOP both reflect the June 10 logic. CFIA won’t accept a retroactive certificate if the shipment cleared without one and the AIRS record said it was mandatory.

AIRS and CAD Workflow

AIRS is a pre-filing check, not a post-release audit trap. Your brokerage team should be running the HS code, origin, and end-use triple through AIRS before the CAD is transmitted, especially on the first shipment of a new SKU or after any CFIA chapter update. Most clearance software can cache AIRS results for repeat shipments, but the cache has to be refreshed when CFIA publishes a change notice.

If the AIRS result says “permit required” and you don’t have one, the options are: hold the shipment at the Canada Food Inspection Agency–controlled CFS and arrange the permit retroactively (expensive, slow, sometimes impossible), or refuse the goods and re-export (even worse). Neither option is cheaper than getting the permit right the first time.

CFIA doesn’t publish these updates with a 30-day grace period or a transition window. June 10 means June 10. If your container arrives June 11 and the CAD is filed June 12, the new Chapter 05 conditions apply in full.

Cross-Border Documentation and Drayage Timing

If your UK goods are transshipped through a U.S. port and drayed to Montreal for CBSA release, make sure your U.S. customs broker isn’t the one holding the CFIA certificate. We’ve seen UK pharma ingredient shipments clear Chicago, truck to our Montreal sufferance warehouse, then sit for a week because the CFIA zoo sanitary certificate was emailed to the wrong broker and never made it into the Canadian CAD packet.

CFIA certificates have to be presented to CBSA at time of CAD filing, not discovered later in the freight forwarder’s inbox. If your drayage carrier is different from your customs broker, make sure the document handoff is clean and the timeline allows for a pre-filing AIRS check before the truck hits the border.

Anything flagged for CFIA inspection will divert to the nearest Canada Food Inspection Agency–approved facility. If that’s a third-party CFS and not your own bonded warehouse, expect per-pallet daily storage, examination fees, and a two-to-five-day minimum hold even if the paperwork is perfect.

Filing Notes for Next Week

If you have a June 12–20 shipment window and your HS code sits anywhere in 0510 or 0511 with UK origin, run the AIRS query now. Don’t wait for your broker to ask. If the result has changed, your supplier needs to know today so they can arrange the right export certificate before the container is stuffed.

CFIA Chapter updates don’t always make the front page of the CSCB digest, but they carry the same enforcement weight as a new D-memo or a SIMA scope ruling. The penalty for missing a permit requirement isn’t just delay — it’s a compliance file that follows your Business Number for the next three years and makes every future CFIA release a candidate for secondary review.

We check AIRS on every CAD we file, and we update our client instruction files the day CFIA publishes a chapter change. If you’re not sure whether your UK animal-origin SKUs are affected, send us the HS code and the end-use description. We’ll pull the current AIRS result and tell you what moved. Get in touch.

Source: CSCB