Manual for official controls

Once your premises have been approved, you will find the Manual for Official Controls (MOC) beneficial for further information.

The MOC describes the tasks, responsibilities and duties of our staff carrying out official controls in approved establishments.

Manual for Official Controls guidance

The Manual for Official Controls documentation is accurate as of 3 July 2023. Recent changes to the MOC can be found in the revision log.

EU references in FSA guidance documents

The FSA is updating all EU references, to accurately reflect the law now in force, in all new or amended guidance published since the Transition Period ended at the end of 2020. In some circumstances it may not always be practicable for us to have all EU references updated at the point we publish new or amended guidance.

Other than in Northern Ireland, any references to EU Regulations in this guidance should be read as meaning retained EU law. You can access retained EU law via HM Government EU Exit Web Archive. This should be read alongside any EU Exit legislation that was made to ensure retained EU law operates correctly in a UK context. EU Exit legislation is on legislation.gov.uk.

In Northern Ireland, EU law will continue to apply in respect to the majority of food and feed hygiene and safety law, as listed in the Northern Ireland Protocol, and retained EU law will not apply to Northern Ireland in these circumstances.

Manual for Official Controls revision log

The following revisions to Manual for Official Controls documentation have been made as of 3 July 2023.

Chapter 1

• Section 3.3.3 Added section on daybook security
• Section 4.1.2 Additional paragraph explaining how the FSA will decide whether to remove dual enforcement OPOAO. 

Chapter 2.1

• Section 2.1.12 Added information about failures in the Salmonella testing window.

Chapter 2.3

• Section 1.2.11 Code of practice for meat chickens
  Section 3.3.1 Updated guidance on referral
  Section 3.3.2 revised DOA guidance and separate red and white meat animals
  Section 3.3.4 Added procedure for heavily pregnant animals
  Section 3.3.5 Added and revised guidance on FPD
  Section 6.1.3 Added in guidance on dealing with animals unfit for human consumption and killing
  Section 6.1.5 Added link to FDQ modules
  Section 6.1.7 Added link to FDQ modules
  Section 6.2.3 Changes to the CoC table, entries 14, 15 and 16

Chapter 2.4

• Section 13.2.5 Added a reference to the Poultry SHV checklist and the retention time for this. 

Chapter 2.5

• Sections 1.1.3, 2.9.1, 2.9.2,2.9.4, 3.2.1, 4.,1.1, 4.4.4, 4.5.1, 4.10.4, and 5.2.2 Wording aligned with the requirements in Regulation 2019/627, Article 43
  Section 2.11 Clarified identification requirements for pigs and of OV instructions in case issues are identified

Chapter 2.6

• Section 2.14 Added poor quality samples notification and required action
• Section 3.17.4 Added poor quality samples notification and required action. 

Chapter 2.8

• Section 1.2.6 Added detail of two scenarios where ART 29 may apply to food businesses, which were missing from this part of the instructions. 
  Section 1.5.4 Clarified the need to stain decomposed cat 3, not to downgrade to cat 2
  Section 4.1.1 Updated as in 1.2.6 above for consistency
  Section 5.3.1 Clarified how to serve an ABP notice
  Section 5.5 SLA with APHA to trace ABPs is no longer in place, replaced by a "reporting agreement" where the Officer can report concerns around ABP destination to APHA
  Section 5.5.3 Deleted the table as the SLA is no longer in place
  Annex 1 ABP 31 form removed

Chapter 2.10

• addition of Section 3: Inspection in co-located cutting plants
  addition of Annex 5: Risk based decision tool for inspections to co-located cutting plants
  addition of Annex 6: Guidance for the completion of the co-located cutting plant inspection report.

Chapter 3

• Annex 10: RMOP updated with section C4 and F4
• Annex 11: added and revised guidance on E. Coli official sampling

Chapter 4.1

• Section 4.7.3 amended guidance in relation to the need of UAIs in co-located CPs that are operating both on slaughter and non-slaughters days.
• Section 5.2.2 ''No critical during audit period'' added

Chapter 4.2

• Section 2.4.2 Removed SRM references as a hazard
  Section 2.5.2 Removed SRM controls reference to CCP
  Section 2.6.2 Remove SRM reference to critical limits

Chapter 6

• Section 2.2.9 Flow chart of procedure for suspect ND amended to match wording in previous sections
  Section 8.2.2 Repeated sentence deleted
  Section 8.4.2 Amended responsibility to reflect changes in SDP management structure
  Section 8.4.3 Amended reference to Designation section
  Section 8.7 Detailed description of FSA duties
  new Annex 33 OV-FSA team checks during AI outbreak added

Chapter 7

• Section 2.5.12 Correction of reference number and spelling correction
• Section 4.1.2.3 Formatting changes
• Section 4.10.2 Addition of text to explain correct process for escalating repeat RFIs
• Section 5 Amended guidance around risk based enforcement and the use of the ENF11/29
• Annex 12 Removal of residual comment, blank page removed and page numbering adjusted. Addition of table to define Status options.

Chapter 9

• Section 2.6 DH ENF 11-6 updated to reflect changes in email address
• Section 2.7 ENF 11-6 updated to reflect change in email address

Chapter 10

• Section 3.4.5 Corrected retention period for ''Verification of competency'' form
• Section 3.6.1 Corrected retention period for PIA PM-1 form