Meat and livestock guidance

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• Animal by-products and edible co-products guidance

  This guide is written for operators of meat plants to help them understand the legislation on animal by-products and edible co-products.

• Charges for official controls in meat premises (The Charges Guide)

  The Food Standards Agency provides a range of services in approved meat premises across Great Britain. Some of these services are currently paid for by other Government departments, for example, checks on animal by product controls. Other services are charged to food business operators (FBOs).

• Cleaner animals

  Hygiene standards for acceptable and unacceptable levels of cleanliness for cattle and sheep being presented for slaughter and benefits of good biosecurity on broiler farms.

• Desinewed meat: Guidance on the moratorium

  This guidance will help meat processors comply with the moratorium on the production of 'desinewed meat' (DSM).

• Emergency slaughter of cattle: Guidance for veterinary surgeons

  Revised guidance for veterinary surgeons on emergency slaughter of cattle has been developed jointly by the British Cattle Veterinary Association, and other veterinary organisations with assistance from the Food Standards Agency and UK Rural Affairs Departments.

• Enforcement of the legislative requirements regarding the number of days between the slaughter and mincing of chilled meat

  Guidance for official controllers and enforcement officers in FSA and LAs on the approach to be taken on the enforcement of the legislative requirements.

• Food chain information for cattle/calves, sheep and goats in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

  From 1 January 2010 EU food hygiene legislation required slaughterhouse operators to ‘request, receive, check and act upon’ food chain information (FCI) for all cattle, sheep and goats sent for slaughter for human consumption. The Agency has produced guidance and model forms to help food businesses.

• Food chain information for pig slaughterhouses: Guidance

  The EU food hygiene legislation requires slaughterhouse operators to 'request, receive, check and act upon' food chain information (FCI) for all pigs sent to the slaughterhouse.

• Food chain information for poultry

  Since 1 January 2006, poultry intended for human consumption have required FCI to be supplied.

• Food chain information model document for animals susceptible to bovine tuberculosis

  The EU food hygiene legislation required slaughterhouse operators to request, receive, check and act upon food chain information (FCI) for all animals sent for slaughter for human consumption.

• Health certificate for farmed game at the holding

  These arrangements combine the certification of the results of the ante mortem inspection with food chain information and certification that farmed game animals and ratites were slaughtered and bled correctly together with confirmation of the date and time of slaughter.

• Home slaughter of livestock: A guide to the law

  Guidance providing information on the law covering the home slaughter of livestock.

• Producing, harvesting and importing terrestrial edible snails for human consumption: Guidance

  Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 defines snails as meaning: terrestrial gastropods of the species Helix pomatiaLinné, Helix aspersaMuller, Helix lucorum and species of the family Achatinidae. This guidance outlines the regulations that apply to the production, harvest and import of the snails defined by the regulation.

• Revised provisions on nitrites/nitrates in meat products: Guidance notes

  Guidance on the revised provisions on nitrates/nitrates in meat products set out in The Miscellaneous Food Additives and the Sweeteners in Food (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2007 and parallel regulations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Supply of on-farm slaughtered and delayed eviscerated poultry: guidance for authorisation

  Guidance on the criteria for operators wishing to be authorised to slaughter poultry on-farm and supply uneviscerated birds to approved poultry producers for delayed evisceration.

• Trichinella testing in feral wild boar: Guidance

  The current EU Food Hygiene Regulations (EC No. 852/2004, EC No. 853/2004 and EC No. 854/2004) came into effect on 1 January 2006. Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 lays down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption.

• Wild game guide: a guide to food hygiene legislation

  The guide is for people who shoot wild game and supply it either in-fur or in-feather or as small quantities of wild game meat. It gives information on hygiene regulations and ways to make sure meat is safe to eat.