The US Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing that, beginning on 16 May 2022, approved export certificates will be printed on plain paper rather than security paper for those countries and territories that receive digitally signed export certificates (FSIS Form 9060-5 series) generated in FSIS' Public Health Information System (PHIS). This plain paper version will continue to facilitate lawful entry of the certified shipment into the importing country when a paper certificate is required, and will include a watermark stating, "Approved Certificate - Available for Validation in PHIS". A sample of FSIS Form 9060-5 with the new watermark is attached to this notification. Note that PHIS-generated 9060-5 series export certificates for shipments certified for export before 16 May 2022, will be printed on security paper and without the watermark indicated above. PHIS does not include egg products or casings at this time. Therefore, these changes will not affect certification of egg products or casings.
FSIS' PHIS generates a digitally signed Form 9060-5 series export certificate, which is retained in PHIS as a PDF document for secure viewing and authentication by an importing country's government officials who have chosen to register for PHIS access through the Certificate Signature Viewer (CSV) role. FSIS has streamlined procedures to access the CSV role, which requires both USDA eAuthentication and enrolling as a CSV. Please contact FSIS at internationalcoordination@usda.gov to obtain these procedures.
In addition to viewing and authenticating the digitally signed PDF certificate in PHIS, CSV users can validate digital signatures and other certificate details using public key cryptography to further validate the export certificate's authenticity. The importing country's users will also have the capability to generate reports on certificates issued to the importing country. More information on these capabilities is available in FSIS' CSV User Guide (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-07/USDA-FSIS-PHIS-Certificate-Signature-Viewer-Quick-Reference-Guide.pdf).
The presence of the digitally signed certificate in the secure, role-based PHIS makes the use of traditional security paper unnecessary. Certificates generated by PHIS are digitally signed by authorized FSIS inspection program personnel. Each certificate includes a unique certificate number.
FSIS has implemented the PHIS export component with 80 countries and territories (see FSIS' website, PHIS Components, under "Country Rollout Schedule," https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/phis-components). For those countries, all country requirements documented in the FSIS Export Library (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/import-export-library), including attestations, are captured on the PHIS-generated FSIS Form 9060-5 export certificate series (FSIS Form 9060-5 remarks section, or FSIS Form 9060-5B continuation sheet,). Countries interested in being included in PHIS should contact FSIS at internationalcoordination@usda.gov for more information
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