Approval of food premises
Certain food establishments need to be approved rather than registered. If you handle products of animal origin, such as meat, fish, milk and/or eggs and you supply food to other food businesses, you may need to be approved.
We grant some approvals, and the Food Standards Agency grants others.
We approve:
- meat preparation, cold store, re-wrapping and re-packaging businesses
- fish and shellfish businesses, including dispatch and purification centres, processing plants and fresh fishery premises
- animal produce businesses that produce raw milk and dairy products and eggs and egg products, including packing centres, processing plants, liquid egg plants
The Food Standards Agency approves:
- slaughterhouses
- cutting plants
- game-handling premises
- wholesale meat markets
Food businesses can only start operating after we have given conditional or full approval for the proposed activity.
Apply for approval of food premises
To check if your business needs to be approved, or to enquire about the application and decision-making process, please contact us:
We maintain an up-to-date database of food businesses that we have approved or conditionally approved. Lists of approved food premises are available on the Food Standards Agency website.
For advice on premises approved by the Food Standards Agency, please contact them: