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Applying for EU approval of food businesses

If you want to place products of animal origin or sprouts on the market, you may need an authorization before starting your activity.

  • Basic information

    If you run a business that belongs to the following categories (not exhaustive), you require a license for the corresponding activity:

    • Meat processing:
      • Slaughterhouses
      • Cutting plants
      • Establishment that produces minced meat, meat preparations or meat products
      • Separator meat producers
      • Meat processing plants
      • Game processing plants
    • Live bivalve molluscs:
      • Dispatch centers
      • Cleaning centers
    • Fishing access:
      • Freezer and factory ships
      • Shrimp boats
      • Companies that manufacture fishery products
    • Milk and dairy products:
      • Establishments that produce heat-treated milk and dairy products from raw milk
      • Businesses that produce dairy products from already processed dairy products (for example butter from pasteurized cream, cheese from pasteurized milk or milk powder)
      • Milk collection centers
    • Egg products:
      • Egg pre-treatment plants
      • Egg whipping plants
      • Egg processing plant
      • Egg cooking plants
      • Egg packing centers
    • Frogs' legs and snails:
      • Companies that prepare and/or process frogs' legs and snails
    • rendered animal fats and greaves:
      • Businesses that collect, store or process the raw materials
    • Stomach and bladders:
      • Businesses that treat bladders, intestines and stomachs
    • Gelatine:
      • Companies that produce edible gelatine
    • Collagen:
      • Companies that produce collagen
    • Sprouts:
      • Companies that produce sprouts
    • Cold stores that store food of animal origin chilled or frozen
    • Kitchens and canteen kitchens that do not sell food directly to the end consumer
    • Establishments where the aforementioned products are re-wrapped, regardless of whether this activity is carried out in conjunction with other activities such as cutting or deboning

    If you only carry out primary production, transport activities, storage of products (whose storage does not require temperature control) or certain retail activities in your business, you do NOT need approval as a food business. This also applies if you fall under the definition of retail and the distribution of food of animal origin is an ancillary activity (a maximum of one third of the production volume is distributed to other retailers) at local level (radius 100 km)

    Requirements

    • Registration of the trade
    • Permit required under the Federal Immission Control Act, if applicable

  • Procedure
    • To initiate the admission procedure, please complete the relevant application form. You will find the link under "Forms". The application documents can be found under the tab "Operating licenses and exemptions".
    • You are welcome to submit your completed application by e-mail or alternatively by post.
    • Once you have sent the application and all documents have been submitted in full, the responsible veterinarians at the Senator for Health, Women and Consumer Protection (SGFV) and the Food Monitoring, Animal Welfare and Veterinary Service (LMTVet) will carry out an inspection of the establishment.
    • If deficiencies are found during this inspection, the approval is initially not granted or is initially granted for a limited period of 3 to a maximum of 6 months.
    • A further inspection is carried out towards the end of this period.
    • If no deficiencies are then found, the approval is revoked.

    More information

    Further information and information sheets are linked under "Forms".

  • Necessary Documents
    • Operating report (always Part A and, depending on the activity, Part B)
    • Extract from the Federal Central Criminal Register (certificate of good conduct of the food business operator) for submission to an authority in accordance with § 30 BZRG, not older than 3 months
    • Information from the central trade register for submission to an authority pursuant to Section 150 (5) GewO
    • Current extract from the commercial register of the operating company or/and confirmation of business registration
    • Organizational chart (in the case of slaughterhouses, also name the animal welfare officer/representative and the person responsible for monitoring stunning)
    • Extract from the real estate register for the site of the business premises (cadastral plan for the site or parcel)
    • Current floor plan of the business premises with scale, taking into account all rooms.

      All rooms on the plan and their use (by numbers or keywords) must be clearly identified, for example by means of a legend and the respective doors or gates must be marked.

    • Machine layout plan, routing plan for personnel and description of the production flow (can be integrated into the floor plan)
    • For slaughterhouses:

      Current floor plan with scale and representation of:

      • Delivery,
      • waiting room,
      • drive,
      • Stunning pen/trap/installation with marking of the operating areas,
      • Angle of inclination and facilities (weather protection, pens, drinking and feeding facilities)
    • Keyword-like description of the production processes, taking into account the production categories and numbered rooms
    • Detailed HACCP concept,

      which is appropriate in scope to the activities and size of the establishment in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 (based on Decision 94/356/EC).

  • Competent Department

  • Forms

  • Fees / Costs

    According to expenditure in accordance with the Healthcare Costs Ordinance:
    Administrative costs and costs for the inspection are incurred for the approval procedure. These are charged on a time basis.

  • Deadlines & processing time

    What deadlines must be paid attention to?

    You may only carry out the activities requiring authorization after authorization has been granted.

    How long does it take to process

    Confirmation of receipt is usually sent within 2 weeks. After submission of the complete documents, an initial inspection for approval will be arranged promptly.

  • Legal Bases

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This page has been automatically translated by DeepL. We cannot guarantee that the translation is correct.

The official information in German is complete and correct. 16.01.2026

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