Approval of a Food Business

 If your business handles and/or processes foods of animal origin you may need approval from the competent authority. Some examples of these sorts of businesses would be slaughterhouses, meat processers, meat product manufacturers (e.g. hams, salamis), egg producers, producers of dairy products (e.g. milk, cheese, yoghurt), fish processors, and producers of processed fishery products (e.g. smoked fish, marinated fish).

Details of the approval process are available from the competent authority. Businesses requiring approval must be approved before commencing trade. It is advisable to contact your competent authority for advice at the earliest stage of your business development. Approval takes into account plans, premises, waste management, processes, HACCP, products and throughput among other things.

Once your business has been approved you will be given a unique approval number which will either be stamped directly onto a carcass or cut of meat after slaughter in the form of a health mark, or appear on any product packaging or labels as an identification mark.

Get contact details for your competent authority  
 

Last reviewed: 15/1/2013