The European Commission works to ensure that Europe's food supply is the safest in the world and that the same standards of food safety apply to all products regardless of origin. As the world's biggest importer and exporter of foodstuffs, the European Union works closely with international organisations and offers advice as well as assistance to third country trading partners.

In addition to Community rules governing inter alia, public health and animal health requirements which must be satisfied by third countries exporting food to the EU, there are a number of special import conditions for certain foodstuffs which have been put in place at Community level in order to protect human health. These have been collated in the following list and cover risks as diverse as residues of veterinary medicines, pesticide residues, food additives, contaminants and genetically modified organisms. This is not an exhaustive list and other emergency safeguard measures may be in place for imports from certain third countries.

List of Special Import Conditions Updated 19-11-2012