To gain insight into user experience of Declaration Food and Consumer Products (DFCP) and Veterinary Inspection Process (VIP) services, Portbase conducted a survey in February 2026. With a response rate of 42% (DFCP) and 51% (VIP) among active organisations, we are very satisfied. Thank you to all users who took the time to share their experiences and suggestions with us.
Portbase considers user surveys important and conducts them periodically. This allows us to stay informed and gather input from users who use the service daily. We use the insights from these surveys to determine priorities for further development. These priorities are subsequently discussed and tested in customer panels, among other channels, before being included in the annual plan.
“User research is not a formality, but an essential part of how we improve our services. The feedback helps us make choices, together with the entire community“
Results of the survay
The results show that users are generally satisfied. Both services are rated an average of 7.3 (out of 10).
Users indicate that the services are well-organised and easy to use. At the same time, the feedback offers suggestions for improvement:
- Management of the address book and address details in Declaration Food and Consumer Products.
- Agenda management and scheduling of inspections in Veterinary Inspection Process.
- Unclear explanations for error codes.
- The desire to make more use of existing data.
- More clarity regarding exactly what should be entered in certain input fields
In addition, suggestions have been made to further improvements. This includes working with multiple containers in a declaration and adding multiple sorting and filtering options.
What are we going to do with these results?
The feedback received is varied and, in many cases, requires coordination with our partners. We will include these points in our discussions.
The explanations for error codes and the management and updating of the address book are examples of this. We will discuss this with the NVWA.
De feedback en verbetersuggesties voor het inplannen van inspecties en de beschikbare capaciteit nemen we mee in de verbeterwerkgroep ‘Digitaliseringskansen Keurketen’. Deze werkgroep is samen met brancheorganisaties, NVWA en het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam. Daarnaast wordt in het tweede kwartaal van 2026 een nieuwe (betaalde) module in Melding Voedsel en Waren ontwikkelt die het grootste gedeelte van het handwerk voor cargadoors automatiseert.
“The results do not disappear into a drawer. We discuss them with our partners and include them in working groups and prioritisation”
Working group ‘Digitaliseringskansen Keurketen’
Since 2025, Portbase has been participating in the working group ‘Digitaliseringskansen Keurketen’. Their goal is to improve the overall handling of inspections in the Netherlands. During the research, various users shared their broader experience with the inspection process. We will delve deeper into this with a number of them so that we can contribute this to the working group.
Results of previous survays
Approximately two years ago, Portbase also conducted research into the user experience for Declaration Food and Consumer Products and Veterinary Inspection Process. Since then, various updates and improvements have been implemented, partly in response to that feedback:
- The status ‘Pending’ has been added to the email notifications.
- The ‘EU standard’ field in the declaration form has been made clearer.
- Declarations can be edited following a ‘Request for amendment’, even if an NVWA status such as ‘Pending’ follows.
