If you intend to set up a business that manufactures or handles (for example, slicing and re-wrapping) products of animal origin* for sale onto other businesses, your premises may have to be approved instead. It is a legal requirement that approval, if needed, is obtained before starting to trade.

*Food of animal origin includes:

• Meat and poultry whether fresh, frozen or cooked;
• Meat products, such as pies, sausage rolls, faggots, black pudding and bacon;
• Raw or partially cooked minced meat or meat preparations such as sausages, burgers, marinated raw meat and kebab meat;
• Fish and fish products such as fish fingers, prawns, lobsters, crabs and crayfish, whether dead or alive;
• Live bivalve molluscs;
• Ready meals containing fish or meat;
• Milk and dairy products such as butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, ice cream;
• Frogs legs and snails;
• Rendered animal fats and other animal by-products such as gelatine, collagen, stomachs, bladders and intestines;
• Honey;
• Blood.

The above is not an exhaustive list, and because this is quite a complex piece of legislation, it is recommended that you contact us at a very early stage.

To obtain approval, you will need to meet certain standards, relating to both structure and hygiene. This will include the need to have a documented food safety management system to show how you intend to ensure the food you produce is safe.

You will also be required to apply an identification mark to your end product. The identification mark is an oval shaped mark containing a number which is unique to your business and is supplied by your local authority. This mark provides a means of tracing the product back to the place of production/wrapping, and provides confirmation that certain standards have been achieved by that business.

How to apply

Contact the Environmental Services Food Safety Team using the details on this page. A member of the team will be pleased to explain the process to you.