Sourcing fully cooked goose meat from China

Goose meat classification and import controls

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 30 September 2026, heading 1602 covers prepared or preserved meat and related products. The listed other goose preparation lines carry £2,313 per 1,000 kg; goose liver carries 10% and homogenised preparations 16%. These special preparations are separate classifications, not alternative rates for ordinary cooked goose cuts. The supplied lines show no anti-dumping or countervailing duty and no suspension.

The selected lines attach veterinary and organic-product import controls. For Great Britain, confirm country and establishment approval, applicable treatment, health certification, advance notification and the veterinary entry document with your customs broker. Use a border control post approved for the commodity. For organic goods, confirm inspection certificates and certification arrangements with your organic control body. The homogenised line also attaches CITES and seal-product controls; ask your broker to confirm their relevance to the actual ingredients.

Confirm the commodity code from the species, full recipe, poultry meat and offal content, cooking process and presentation. The supplied facts do not include an other cooked line for goose preparations containing at least 57% poultry meat or offal; ask your broker to confirm the current classification rather than borrowing a Pekin duck code. See the cooked duck guide for the wider heading. The worked example concerns goose liver, subject to eligibility and classification confirmation.

Specify goose cuts, skin and the cooking process

Specify whole birds, breast, legs or sliced meat, with bone-in or boneless and skin-on or skinless agreed explicitly. Record the proportions of goose meat, skin, fat and sauce, added water, seasoning and allergens. Agree portion weight, texture, fat separation and serving yield against a retained sample. State whether the product is ready to eat or intended for further preparation.

China's poultry meat-product certificate covers specific risk-mitigating treatment. Have the exporter confirm the treatment applicable to the proposed goose product before approving its cooking process. Ask for batch cooking, cooling and freezing records, microbiological results and evidence supporting shelf life. Agree frozen, chilled or shelf-stable presentation, pack seals and storage instructions. Use factory verification to check the proposed producer and records.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative trial order of fully cooked goose liver preparations; eligibility and classification must be confirmed under 1602 20 10 00, invoiced at £6,000 free on board, with £4,000 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £10,000. Duty at 10% is £1,000. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £11,000, so it is £2,200. Import taxes total £3,200; a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim the VAT, so the lasting cost is the £1,000 of duty. The import duty and VAT guide explains each step. This assumes the goods are standard-rated for VAT. Most food for human consumption is zero-rated, and animal feed can be too, in which case no import VAT is due, so check the rate for your product in HMRC's VAT Notice 701/14.

Inspection checklist

Documents: match the approved establishment, goose species, product description, batch identification and health certificate to the shipment.

Condition: compare temperature records and arrival condition with the agreed storage specification; inspect broken seals, leaks, damaged packs and signs of thawing.

Contents: check net weight, bone fragments, skin and fat proportions, sauce content and serving yield against the approved sample.

Labels: check the food name, ingredients with allergens emphasised, net quantity, date marking, storage instructions and food business name and UK address.

What goes wrong

A supplier treats ordinary roasting as sufficient evidence of import eligibility, or presents a chicken or Pekin duck tariff line for goose. Establish the exact product, plant approval, applicable treatment and certification before committing to production. A tariff code and a cooking claim do not establish permission to import.

A heavier skin layer, extra sauce or more bone can reduce serving yield despite an unchanged pack weight. Poor cooling records, leaking packs and mismatched batch markings make acceptance harder. Agree composition and acceptance criteria, retain samples and investigate suspect stock before releasing it.

Cambridge China Bridge sources these products for UK businesses, checking the factory and the documents before shipment. See factory verification. For repeat volumes, see container programmes.