Get a food business approved
How to get a food business approved and what are the requirements. Which food businesses need to be approved.
Some types of food businesses need to be approved instead of being registered. Getting your business approved is free.
In most cases, we need to approve your food business if it makes, prepares or handles food of animal origin for supply to other businesses.
Most other types of food businesses must be registered. Check if your business needs registering.
Businesses that must get approval
Businesses supplying food of animal origin include:
- cold stores that re-wrap and re-package meat
- minced meat businesses
- meat preparation establishments
- mechanically-separated meat establishments
- meat products processing plants
- rendered animal fats and greaves processing plants
- treated stomachs, bladders and intestines processing plants
- gelatine processing plants
- collagen processing plants
Operating a business like this is illegal without full or conditional approval from us.
Check if you need approval using the ABC food law tool.
Apply for approval
You can apply to Southwark Council for approval of a food establishment or complete the application form (PDF, 82KB).
Once approved, your business will be added to the Food Standards Agency approved establishments list.
Requirements
To get approved you must have procedures in place to manage food safety. These should be based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.
Your food safety management system should be:
- designed to fit your business
- simple
- appropriate to the scale and type of production you carry out
The MyHACCP tool from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will help you develop your food safety management system.
Read more about the approvals process from the FSA.
Exemptions
If your food business supplies food of animal origin directly to the final consumer then you do not need approval.
The consumer is:
- the person who will eat the product
- a caterer preparing food for the consumer
Some other exemptions are based on the premises having a retail element or supplying other retailers on a marginal, localised and restricted basis.
You may also be exempt if your premises make foods containing both:
- products of plant origin
- processed products of animal origin
Contact the Food Safety team for further information. The rules around exemptions can be complex.
If you’re exempt from approval you still need to be registered and to follow most of the same hygiene rules.