If you make, prepare or handle food of animal origin for sale to other businesses such as

  • 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 etc;
  • live bivalve molluscs;
  • ready meals containing fish or meat;
  • milk and dairy products such as butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream etc;
  • frogs legs and snails,
  • rendered animal fats and other animal by products such as gelatine, collagen, stomachs, bladders and intestines;
  • honey
  • blood

For supply to other businesses, your business and its activities may have to be approved. If your business is a slaughterhouse or meat cutting plant, it will need to be approved by the Food Standards Agency.

Contact Details

Environmental Health

East Staffordshire Borough Council

PO Box 8045

Burton upon Trent

DE14 9JG

E-mail: [email protected]

Telephone: (01283) 508578

Approval of food business premises

Exemptions

There are some exemptions to this requirement which are detailed below.

Should your food business be exempted from the requirement to be approved, it will, nonetheless need to be registered and you should complete and submit an 'application for food registration form' to the council at least 28 days before you intend to commence operations if you are a new business, or within 28 days of taking over an existing food business.

Failure to register a food business or notify significant changes is an offence for which you may be prosecuted.

Retail

If your business is a retail business involved in the handling, processing and storage of food at the point of sale or delivery to the final consumer you may be exempt from approval. Premises that produce products of animal origin that you supply to other retail businesses may also be exempt from approval.

This exemption applies if your supply of products of animal origin to other retailers is a marginalised, localised and restricted activity.

Marginal

The production of products of animal origin is only a small part of your business. A small part of your business would be considered up to a quarter of the business in terms of food.

Localised

The other retail establishments that you supply are in the immediate vicinity of your establishment. This is interpreted as sales within your own county plus the greater of either the neighbouring county or counties or 30 miles from the boundary of the supplying establishment's county. In East Staffordshire this would mean supply to the whole of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham and Leicestershire or any point 30 miles from the county boundary.

Restricted

Concerning only certain types of products or establishments.

Further information can be obtained by contacting us on [email protected]

Regulation Summary

Find out more about food regulation.

Applying for Approval

Apply for Food Premises Approval

Apply to change a food premises approval

Should you experience any difficulty in applying online, please contact us.

Once your application form has been received we will contact you to arrange for a visit to your premises. We will visit your premises within 28 days of receiving your application.

The visit will encompass a full inspection of the establishment to verify that all systems, procedures and documentation meet the relevant requirements of Regulation 852/2004 and Regulation 853/2004.

After the visit there may need to be a planned programme of works in order to achieve approval and you and/or your employees may need to have further training proportionate to the size and nature of your business.

Once we have assessed your premises your establishment may be granted full approval, granted conditional approval or approval may be refused.

Once your business is approved we will issue your establishment with a unique approval number which makes up part of the standard identification mark which must be applied to your products and documentation.

To ensure that you are complying with the labelling requirements you will need to contact Trading Standards.

You must not commence any business activity which requires approval, unless you have received conditional or full approval for your proposed activity from the council. To do so is an offence for which you are likely to be prosecuted.

Fees

There is no charge for for approval.

What to do if your application fails

If an establishment does not fully meet the legal requirements, East Staffordshire Borough Council may grant conditional approval or may refuse approval.

If we decide to refuse an application for approval, we will notify you in writing as soon as possible. We will give the reasons for refusal, the matters necessary to satisfy the requirements and make it clear that activities requiring approval may not be undertaken unless approval or conditional approval is granted.

If your application for approval is refused, you can appeal to the local Magistrates’ Court.

Food Business Operator Appeal

Please contact East Staffordshire Borough Council in the first instance.

Public Register

A list of approved premises based in East Staffordshire may be viewed at East Staffordshire Borough Council by prior appointment.