Businesses that need approval
Products of animal origin (POAO)
- Any foods of animal origin (including honey and blood).
- Live bivalve molluscs, live echinoderms, live tunicates, and live marine gastropods intended for human consumption.
- Other animals destined to be prepared with a view to being supplied live to the final consumer.
Processing establishment: An establishment where POAO are either treated, processed (heating, smoking, curing, etc.) and wrapped, or undergoes one or more of those handling activities.
Processed products: Foodstuffs resulting from the processing of unprocessed products. These products may contain ingredients that are necessary for their manufacture or to give them specific characteristics.
If your food business is handling POAO, you may need approval.
Types of establishments and types of POAO includes:
General establishments:
- Cold stores – A wholesale establishment used for the storage of POAO under temperature-controlled conditions (refrigerated or frozen), for foods intended for sale for human consumption.
- Re-wrapping – An establishment that unwraps the initial wrapping or initial container, which is in direct contact with the POAO product and then re-wraps the products.
- Re-packaging – An establishment which removes wrapped foodstuffs from a second container and re-packages them without removing the initial wrapping which is in direct contact with the POAO product.
Meat establishments:
- Minced meat – An establishment that produces minced meat. Minced meat is defined as boned meat that has been minced into fragments and contains less than 1% salt.
- Meat preparations – An establishment that produces fresh meat, including meat that has been reduced to fragments, which has had foodstuffs, seasoning or additives added to it, or which has undergone processes insufficient to modify the internal muscle fibre structure of the meat and thus to eliminate the characteristics of fresh meat.
- Mechanically separated meat (MSM) establishments – The product is obtained by removing meat from flesh-bearing bones after boning, or from poultry carcases, using mechanical means resulting in the loss or modification of the muscle fibre structure.
- Meat products processing plants – Processed products resulting from the processing of meat or from the further processing of such processed products, so that the cut surface shows that the product no longer has the characteristics of fresh meat.
- Rendered animal fats and greaves processing plants – The protein-containing residue of rendering, after partial separation, of fat and water.
- Treated stomachs, bladders, and intestines processing plants
- Gelatine processing plants
- Collagen processing plants
Fish and shellfish establishments:
- Fishery products establishments including:
- Processing plant – Establishments that process fishery products.
- Auction hall – Establishments that store and display fishery products for auction sale.
- Wholesale market – An establishment that includes separate sub-units operating independently as wholesalers but sharing common facilities.
- Live bivalve molluscs (LBMs) establishments including:
- Dispatch centres – Reception, conditioning, washing, cleaning, grading, wrapping, and packaging of LBMs.
- Purification centres – Purification of LBMs in tanks fed by clean seawater for the time necessary to reduce contamination to make them fit for human consumption.
Dairy establishments:
- Collection centres of raw milk – This is an establishment where raw milk is cooled and filtered.
- Processing plant – This is an establishment where milk or milk-based products are treated, processed and/or wrapped.
Egg processing establishments:
- Packing centres – Establishments that pack and grade eggs by quality and weight.
- Processing plants – Establishments that process egg products.
- Liquid egg plants – Handling of unprocessed egg contents after removal of shell.