If you are mapping out a compliance workflow that touches EU TRACES, you need to know which document type applies before you can validate anything against it.
The core document types
TRACES issues several certificate types depending on what is moving and where. The Common Health Entry Document (CHED) has been required for animals and goods entering the EU since December 2019. INTRA, also called ITAHC, is the Intra-Trade Animal Health Certificate used for live animal movements between member states and Northern Ireland. Export certificates cover goods leaving the EU, and PHYTO certificates apply to plants and plant products.
How the certification flow connects them
The process itself follows a fixed sequence: an operator or authority creates the certificate, a competent authority validates it, the consignment travels with it, and border officials check it against the CHED at an EU border control post before recording a decision. Our guide to how EU TRACES works sets out each step alongside the document types involved.
Establishment lists as a fifth data type
Alongside certificates sits a separate but connected dataset: establishment lists, the registers of non-EU facilities approved to export animal-origin products. A certificate can be perfectly valid while the establishment behind it has been delisted, which is a distinct failure mode worth checking separately.
Building a validation layer
Any workflow processing these documents benefits from checking establishment codes independently of certificate validity, since the two can diverge without warning.
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