RulesUpdated 18 Sept 2026Approx. reading time 11 min

CHED: guide to the Common Health Entry Document (2026)

By Elias Ryman

An inspector in a hard hat and high-visibility vest checks the cargo in a container at the port

Quick answer

CHED stands for Common Health Entry Document. It is the mandatory advance notification completed by the importer or representative in the EU system TRACES NT when a consignment is subject to border controls: when it contains animals, animal products, plants or certain food and feed from countries outside the EU. There are four types (CHED-A, CHED-P, CHED-PP and CHED-D). The consignment must normally be notified at least one working day before arrival in EU territory, and the CHED must be approved before the goods leave the port or airport and before the customs declaration is submitted. Its reference number is then entered in the import declaration as a supporting document.

An incorrect CHED can hold the consignment at the terminal, and in the worst case it must be rejected. At Tullify, we prepare and review Common Health Entry Documents every week, both for animal products and plant-based goods subject to increased import controls. This guide is based on how TRACES NT and import declarations work in practice.

What is a CHED?

CHED, the Common Health Entry Document, is the EU’s common health document for entry. It serves three purposes at once:

An advance notification. You tell the border control post that a controlled consignment is on its way, what it contains and when it will arrive.
A control decision. The authority records its documentary, identity and physical checks in the same document and approves or rejects the consignment.
A supporting document for customs. The reference number of the approved document is entered in the import declaration, and Swedish Customs checks its status digitally against TRACES.

The document is created in TRACES NT (TRAde Control and Expert System, New Technology), the European Commission’s platform for entry documents and certificates. A reference number follows the format CHEDP.SE.2026.0012345, where the middle section identifies the country carrying out the border control.

It replaced the former CVED for animal products and live animals and CED for non-animal food and feed. If you see those terms in an old procedure or instruction, it is out of date.

The four CHED types

The correct type depends on the goods, not the transport method. If you choose the wrong type, you have to start again, because a submitted document cannot change type.

Live animals

Live animals entering the EU, such as horses, cattle, poultry and pets imported commercially.

Authority: Swedish Board of Agriculture
Document code: C640
Common for: Horse and breeding-animal imports

Products of animal origin

Meat, fish, dairy products, honey, gelatine, animal by-products and composite foods containing animal ingredients.

Authority: Swedish Food Agency for food; Swedish Board of Agriculture for animal by-products, germinal products, hay and straw, and feed
Document code: N853

Plants and plant products

Plants for planting, fruit, vegetables, timber, wood packaging and used agricultural machinery: goods subject to plant health requirements.

Authority: Swedish Board of Agriculture
Document code: C085

Increased controls: non-animal products

Food and feed of non-animal origin subject to temporarily increased controls or emergency measures, such as peanuts, spices and certain sauces.

Authority: Swedish Food Agency
Document code: C678

A consignment may need two documents. A composite food containing both animal ingredients and an ingredient subject to increased controls may need two documents. Organic goods also require an approved COI certificate linked to the CHED in TRACES NT. Review each goods item separately, not the consignment as a whole.

When is a CHED required?

A CHED is required when goods entering from a non-EU country are subject to border controls. In simple terms:

Food of animal origin and animal by-products, regardless of quantity when imported commercially.
Composite foods containing animal ingredients, with one important exception. Shelf-stable composite products without meat or colostrum, whose animal ingredients come from approved countries and establishments and whose CN codes appear in the annex to Regulation (EU) 2021/630, are exempt from border controls. They require instead a private attestation signed by the importer. Always check the latest version of the annex before creating a CHED-P.
Live animals and germinal products.
Plants, plant products and goods subject to plant health requirements.
Food and feed of non-animal origin listed for increased controls or subject to emergency measures.
Melamine or polyamide plastic kitchenware and tableware originating in or consigned from China or Hong Kong, under Regulation (EU) No 284/2011. These require an approved CHED-D before customs clearance, with a deadline of at least two working days in advance.

It is normally not required in the following cases:

Goods in free circulation that have already undergone border controls in another EU country, provided the checks are complete and the document approved.
Goods without health or plant health requirements, such as clothing, electronics or machinery without soil residues.
Private imports covered by the applicable exemptions for travellers’ personal luggage.

If you are unsure whether your goods are subject to border controls, the commodity code determines this. We cover it in our commodity classification guide and in the article on importing food into Sweden.

How to create a CHED in TRACES NT, step by step

The document has three parts. As the importer or representative, you complete only Part I. Part II is completed by the authority at the border control post, and Part III is used for onward transport or rejection.

Health certificateIssued in the country of dispatch
Part I in TRACES NTAt least 1 working day before
Border controlDocuments and identity
ApprovalGoods may leave the port
Import declarationC640, N853, C678 or C085

The chain from health certificate to customs declaration: the certificate is issued in the country of dispatch, Part I is notified in TRACES NT at least one working day before arrival, the border control post performs documentary, identity and, where necessary, physical checks, and only once the CHED is approved may the goods leave the port and the declaration be submitted.

Obtain access to TRACES NTLog in with an EU Login account, link your user to the company’s operator in TRACES NT and make sure the operator holds the activity Responsible for the load (RFL). Without it you cannot create a CHED. Validation is carried out by the competent authority or by the operator’s administrator, and for RFL a border control post must be named as the responsible authority. A representative can act for the importer, but the role must be in place before the first consignment. The competent authority approves the application, so start well in advance.
Gather the documents before you startYou need the health or phytosanitary certificate, invoice, packing list, transport document (CMR, sea waybill or air waybill), container or trailer registration number, seal number and destination details. If batch numbers or net weights are missing, obtain them from the certificate and manifest. Never guess.
Complete Part I: consignor, consignee and destinationThe consignor (I.1) must match the health certificate. The consignee (I.6) must be the consignee named in the health or phytosanitary certificate, usually the importing company. The place where the goods are physically unloaded, such as the warehouse or terminal, goes in I.7 Place of destination, together with the establishment’s registration number. The place of destination (I.7) and the operator must be registered in TRACES.
Enter transport and arrival detailsMeans of transport (I.13), seal and container numbers (I.17), and the estimated time of arrival at the border control post in box I.10, Advance notification. The advance-notification deadline, however, is measured against the consignment’s arrival in EU territory and also applies to consignments transhipped within the EU.
Describe the goods in I.31CN code, goods description, country of origin, number of packages, net and gross weight and batch number for each goods item. This determines whether the customs declaration will pass, because net weight and commodity code must match exactly between the document and the declaration.
Attach certificates and submitUpload the health or phytosanitary certificate. For Swedish consignments, enter the attestation number, known as the PA number. For British certificates, use the certificate reference number instead. Book the inspection according to the border control post’s procedure and submit Part I.
Wait for approval in Part IIThe border control post carries out documentary checks, identity checks and, where necessary, physical inspection and sampling. Only when the status is Validated may the goods leave the port or airport, and only then should the customs declaration be submitted.

CHED has three parts

Part I: importer or representative: Consignor, consignee, destination, means of transport and the goods in I.31. Submitted before arrival.
Part II: border control post: Documentary checks, identity checks and physical checks where needed. Approves or rejects the consignment.
Part III: competent authority: Used for onward transport, transhipment or rejection of the consignment.

You complete only Part I. The goods may leave the port only after Part II is approved.

The applicable deadlines

Stage	Deadline	Comment
Advance notification	At least one working day before arrival in EU territory	The border control post may accept a minimum of four hours where there are logistical obstacles, but that is the post’s decision. Timber going to the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s timber posts requires five working days, notified by 10:00. Kitchen and tableware from China and Hong Kong requires two working days.
Approval	Before the goods leave the port or airport	Consignments moved within the EU without completed border controls are normally rejected.
Customs declaration	After CHED approval	Swedish Customs checks the status digitally and releases only approved consignments.
Road transport from a third country	At first entry into the EU	Border controls take place in the EU country where the vehicle first enters the Union. If it comes from Norway that country is Sweden, and plant health checks may be carried out at Svinesund. This also applies to goods arriving by air and transferred to road transport in another EU country.

The sequence that determines whether goods are released

At least 1 working day beforePart I is submitted in TRACES NT.
ArrivalThe consignment reaches the border control post.
Border controlDocumentary, identity and physical checks.
CHED approvedOnly now may the goods leave the port.
Customs declarationSubmitted after approval.

Exception: the border control post may accept a minimum of four hours where arrival cannot, for logistical reasons, be known one working day in advance. It is the post’s decision, not a right.

The sequence is fixed. Skip a step and the consignment stays at the terminal.

The Swedish Food Agency reinforced its message in June 2026. The authority explicitly reminded operators that consignments subject to border controls may not leave the border control post’s area before the CHED is approved in TRACES NT, and that CHED and COI must be approved before the consignment is declared to Swedish Customs. Consignments entering the country without an approved CHED must normally be rejected.

CHED in the import declaration

The approved number is entered under supporting documents, data element 12 03 000 000 in Swedish Customs’ declaration guidance. The reference itself goes in 12 03 001 000 and the document code in 12 03 002 000, with codes taken from the Swedish Customs Tariff. Swedish Customs is explicit on one point: when goods are covered by a Common Health Entry Document, the information must be entered at goods-item level. The same reference number must not appear at both header and goods-item level.

Document	Document code	Reference
CHED-P (products of animal origin)	`N853`	`CHEDP.SE.2026.0012345`
CHED-D (increased controls, non-animal products)	`C678`	`CHEDD.SE.2026.0012345`
CHED-PP (plants and plant products)	`C085`	`CHEDPP.SE.2026.0012345`

For an organic consignment, the goods item needs two codes: the code for the goods themselves and C644 for the certificate of inspection. It is not a case of choosing one or the other.

Always check the code requirement in the Customs Tariff for your particular commodity code before declaring. Conditions vary by code, and a missing or incorrect document code is one of the most common reasons for a declaration getting stuck.

Five rules that determine whether the declaration goes through:

Net weight and commodity code must match between the document and the declaration. Discrepancies stop the consignment.
The goods lines must correspond to the declaration items. If the document has four lines, the declaration should normally have four corresponding items.
Organic and conventional goods must not be combined in the same goods item, even if the commodity code is identical.
If the document has been replaced in TRACES , enter the reference of the approved replacement, never the original.
If the consignment is split between several destinations or part consignments, enter the number applicable to each part. A COI must be split into extracts in TRACES.

If you need help with the declaration itself, find more about the process on our pages about import declarations and customs clearance.

CHED, COI, health certificates and phytosanitary certificates

These terms are often confused, which is the most common reason an importer believes the paperwork is complete when it is not. The certificate and the notification are two different things, and you need both.

Document	What it is	Who issues it
Health certificate	Evidence that the animal product meets EU requirements	Competent authority in the country of dispatch
Phytosanitary certificate	Plant health certificate for plants and plant products	Plant protection authority in the country of dispatch
CHED	Advance notification and the authority’s control decision	You complete Part I; the authority completes Part II
COI	Certificate of inspection for organic products	Control body in the country of dispatch

The certificate is the prerequisite and the notification is the tool. Without the certificate, Part I cannot be completed correctly. Without approved Part II, the goods may not leave the port even if the certificate is flawless. Swedish consignments use an attestation number to identify the certificate; British consignments use its certificate reference number.

Organic goods require both processes at the same time: an approved COI linked to the CHED in TRACES NT, and code C644 in the declaration alongside N853, C678 or C085.

Customs warehouses, free zones and onward transport

Border controls are not conditional on goods going directly into free circulation. If the consignment is bound for a customs warehouse, a free zone or temporary storage, is delivered to a vessel or moves on in transit, it must still undergo border controls and have an approved document. Storage or transit is not an exemption.

Part III is used for onward transport. The authority records that the consignment will be moved to another destination, transhipped or rejected. If you plan to move the goods to a customs warehouse after inspection, this should be stated in the notification from the outset, not added later.

One point is often missed: checks take place at the first border control post in the EU, not where you clear customs. If goods arrive by air in another Member State and transfer to road transport for Sweden, they must be checked at the airport’s border control post before the vehicle continues. If they enter Sweden without completed checks, they are normally rejected, however correct the Swedish declaration is.

Common pitfalls from our own cases

These are mistakes we see repeatedly in practice. They rarely appear in the manuals.

Changing the trailer after notification. If the freight forwarder changes the trailer after the certificate and CHED are issued, simply updating the field is not enough. In one of our cases in July 2026, the Swedish Food Agency advised that the change required new health certificates and new CHEDs because the trailer number appeared on the certificate. A seal discrepancy alone, by contrast, has been resolved without new documents. Plan transport so the vehicle is fixed before the certificate is issued.
The cold store is a separate establishment. When goods pass through a cold store before their destination, the cold store is a separate establishment of origin in TRACES with the cold store activity. Selecting the wrong establishment makes the document incorrect even if the address looks right.
Do not confuse I.6 with I.7. The consignee in I.6 must be the consignee named in the health certificate, usually the importing company. The warehouse or terminal where the goods are unloaded belongs in I.7, the place of final unloading. Putting the warehouse in the consignee field is one of the most frequent correction requests we see.
Approved, but the goods are still held. Approval alone is not always enough for the terminal to release the goods. The terminal also needs the authority’s notification. Without it, the consignment remains on hold even when everything is correct in TRACES. Contact the border control post, not the terminal.

If the CHED is not approved

If the consignment receives an adverse finding in Part II, the defect can often be remedied before the decision is taken. If the authority finds that the consignment does not meet the requirements, it will require one of three measures under Article 66 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625: destruction, redispatch to a destination outside the EU, or special treatment that brings the goods into compliance, such as processing or use for a purpose other than food. The authority decides which option is available and records the decision in the document. The measure must be completed within 60 days of the decision, failing which the authority orders destruction. Storage, transhipment, sampling and any destruction costs fall on the person responsible for the consignment.

The cheapest way to deal with rejection is to avoid it: correct information in Part I, the certificate checked before loading and the inspection booked on time.

We handle your CHED cases

Tullify prepares, reviews and follows up Common Health Entry Documents and links them to the import declaration. You do not need to keep track of TRACES roles, deadlines and document codes.

Frequently asked questions about CHED

What does CHED mean?

CHED stands for Common Health Entry Document. It is the EU’s standardised document for advance notification and recording border controls on animals, animal products, plants and certain food and feed from non-EU countries. The document is created in TRACES NT.

What is the difference between CHED-P and CHED-D?

CHED-P is used for animal products such as meat, fish, dairy products, honey and composite foods with animal ingredients. CHED-D is used for food and feed of non-animal origin subject to temporarily increased import controls or emergency measures, such as peanuts and certain spices. In the import declaration, CHED-P uses document code N853 and CHED-D uses C678.

How far before arrival must the CHED be submitted?

Advance notification should normally be made at least one working day before the consignment’s expected arrival in EU territory, including consignments transhipped within the EU. If arrival cannot be known one working day in advance for logistical reasons, the period may be shortened to at least four hours. Time for the inspection is additional, so do not expect approval within the same hour.

Who may complete a CHED?

The person responsible for the consignment: the importer or a representative acting for the importer. The role must be approved in TRACES NT before the document can be created. Part I is completed by the importer or representative, Part II by the authority at the border control post, and Part III is used for onward transport or rejection.

Can a submitted CHED be amended?

Some details can be corrected before approval, but the CHED type cannot be changed and information taken from the health certificate cannot be freely amended. If the means of transport changes after the certificate is issued, new certificates and CHEDs may be required. If a document is replaced in TRACES, the approved replacement CHED number must be entered in the customs declaration.

What happens if goods arrive without an approved CHED?

The consignment may not leave the border control post’s area and cannot be cleared through customs. Consignments entering the country without an approved CHED must normally be rejected, meaning return or destruction. Storage and remedial costs are borne by the person responsible for the consignment.

Is a CHED required for goods from Great Britain?

Yes. Great Britain is a third country in relation to the EU, so goods subject to border controls require a CHED just like goods from elsewhere outside the EU. British health certificates are identified by their certificate reference number, unlike Swedish certificates, which use an attestation number. Read more in our guide to importing from the UK.

What is TRACES NT?

TRACES NT (TRAde Control and Expert System, New Technology) is the European Commission’s digital platform for entry documents, certificates and border controls. CHEDs and COIs are created there, and Swedish Customs retrieves document status from it when processing the import declaration. Access is through EU Login.

Where are Sweden’s border control posts?

Food border controls take place at EU-approved border control posts. The Swedish Food Agency’s list comprises Gothenburg port, Stockholm Norvik, Helsingborg port, Gävle port and Stockholm Arlanda, all approved for products of animal origin, composite products and products of plant origin. Södertälje port is approved only for products of plant origin and for kitchen and tableware from China and Hong Kong. Arlanda is the only airport with a border control post for food. Live animals are handled by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The only Swedish post for live animals is Stockholm Arlanda, and it is not approved for horses or other ungulates. Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep and goats from outside the EU must therefore enter via an approved post in another EU country. Each post is approved for specific categories of goods, and the list is updated, so always check the Swedish Food Agency’s current list before booking an inspection.

Read on

Importing food? Read our guide to importing food into Sweden.

The CHED number is entered in the import declaration.

More guides are collected in our customs guides.

Sources

The information on this page was checked against the following sources on 18 September 2026. Rules can change and the page may become outdated. Please let us know if you spot anything incorrect.

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