Cutting plant pre-designation FAQs

Cutting plant designation is an authorisation by the Secretary of State for a cutting plant to operate during an outbreak of an exotic animal disease.

It acts as a guarantee that the designated cutting plant can operate to a required standard to mitigate the spread of disease.

It also enables the plant to comply with legislative requirements and satisfies the conditions of movement licences for meat to be handled and processed at the designated cutting plant.

Pre-designation means a cutting plant already has the right procedures and facilities in place to keep operating during an exotic disease outbreak. These procedures do not need to be followed unless there is an active outbreak.

In the event of a disease outbreak, the food business operator (FBO) needs to contact the FSA Approvals team to ask to activate the designation. Defra or the Welsh Government will assess the application and, if appropriate, authorise the designation.

Once the designation is active, the cutting plant must comply with all the specified conditions.

No, you only need to comply with the conditions once an exotic animal disease outbreak has been confirmed and the designation has been activated by Defra or the Welsh Government.

Only cutting plants handling controlled meat (or meat from seropositive pigs in the case of swine vesicular disease) need to be designated.

If you are not handling controlled meat, you do not need to be designated.

Food business operators (FBOs) can apply for pre-designation at any time.

You can request the form from the FSA Approvals team by emailing approvals@food.gov.uk.

You can request an application form from the FSA Approvals team by emailing approvals@food.gov.uk.

In slaughterhouses and co-located cutting plants, Part One of the application form needs to be completed by the food business operator (FBO) and Part Two needs to be completed by the official veterinarian (OV).

Once these are complete, they must be sent to the FSA Approvals team along with the FBO procedures and any relevant supporting documentation.

The FSA Field Veterinary Lead will assess the application and approve the pre-designation, if they are satisfied, by completing Part Three.

In the case of stand-alone cutting plants, FBOs should complete Part One of the form and send the application, procedures and supporting documents to the FSA Approvals team, who will arrange the assessment of the application and advise whether any additional steps are needed.

Part Four is the grant of designation, which is completed by Defra or the Welsh Government during an exotic disease outbreak.

Part Five contains guidance on completing the application and explanatory notes.

If you do not have a permanent official veterinarian (OV) on site, the food business operator (FBO) needs to complete Part One of the application and share this, along with relevant procedures and supporting documentation, with the FSA Approvals team by emailing approvals@food.gov.uk.

The Notifiable Disease Portfolio team at the FSA will assess the procedures and may wish to arrange a site visit to verify that you can comply with the conditions of designation.

If they are satisfied, the information is returned to the FSA Approvals team to complete Part Three of the form.

There is no set timeline, but the application will be reviewed as soon as possible.

Once reviewed, the FSA will let the food business operator (FBO) know whether more information is needed or whether the pre-designation can be granted.

Yes, any processing facility co-located to a cutting plant, which falls under FSA supervision, is covered by this pre-designation application process.

Stand-alone processing facilities are not covered because they fall under the supervision of local authorities rather than the FSA.

Discussions with local authorities about how to pre-designate/designate these sites are ongoing.

Pre-designation is reviewed annually.

You must inform the FSA Approvals team immediately if there is any change at the cutting plant that may result in any of the information in the designation becoming incorrect or if you can no longer meet any of the requirements set out in the designation.

The FSA Approvals team will assess the impact of these changes and determine whether a further review or a reapplication is required.

Once a notifiable disease outbreak is over, a designation is revoked, but your pre-designation will remain in place.

Defra is discussing with the EU auditors what level of separation would satisfy their definition of ‘strict’ within the export health certificates (EHCs).

Defra is happy to consider practical alternatives that will demonstrate that strict separation is complied with and can be replicated.

Email your feedback to exotic.disease.policy@defra.gov.uk.

Yes, any animal by-product from controlled animals needs to be kept strictly separated from those from non-controlled animals.

In cases where this is not possible, animal by-products from non-controlled animals must be disposed of according to the same requirements as by-products from controlled animals.

Many Defra-approved disinfectants are not food safe; therefore, the application forms for cutting plants allow the use of non-approved food-safe disinfectants.

You will still need to use Defra-approved disinfectants for vehicles coming on and off the site.

View the list of Defra-approved disinfectants

Requirements include (but are not limited to):

• Strict separation during storage, processing and transport of meat and animal by-products (ABP) from controlled animals/seropositive pigs from those from non-controlled animals
• Cleansing and disinfection of surfaces, equipment and vehicles, and replacement of PPE after handling products from controlled animals/seropositive pigs
• Meat and products from controlled animals/seropositive pigs must be marked and treated; they must not be used in raw pet food
• Record keeping in relation to traceability of controlled meat
• Specific record keeping for cutting plants treating controlled meat, including which treatment was applied

Read the pre-designation application form for a full list of requirements – you can request this from the FSA Approvals team by emailing approvals@food.gov.uk.

For meat from a protection or surveillance zone for diseases other than foot-and-mouth disease, either:

• A special mark consisting of a diagonal cross superimposed over the health mark
• An identification mark applied under Article 5 of Regulation No. 853/20074 laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin

For meat from a protection or surveillance zone in the case of foot and mouth:

• An identification mark as required by Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council
• This mark must also be overstamped

For meat from a protection or surveillance zone for diseases other than foot-and-mouth disease, either:

• Those set out in Schedule 2 of the Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) (England) Regulations 2008
• Schedule 2 of the Products of Animal Origin (Disease Control) (Wales) Regulations 2008

View the list of treatments for diseases other than foot-and-mouth disease

For meat from a protection or surveillance zone in the case of foot-and-mouth disease, either:

• Those set out in paragraph 1 of Schedule 6 of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (England) Order 2006
• Paragraph 1 of Schedule 5 of the Foot and Mouth Disease (Wales) Order 2006

View the list of treatments for foot-and-mouth disease

Please note that only one treatment needs to be applied.

Yes, strict separation is still required.

No, cutting plants are either pre-designated/designated or not.

Not necessarily. A cutting plant only needs to be designated if it is handling controlled meat (or meat from seropositive pigs in the case of swine vesicular disease).

You can continue to operate without designation inside a protection or surveillance zone if you are only handling non-controlled meat.

For foot-and-mouth disease, the requirements are slightly different – legislation requires that establishments handling meat from animals kept in a protection or surveillance zone are authorised to operate by way of a licence.

To operate during a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, and once the licence has been published by Defra, cutting plants handling controlled meat must have designation approved.

Yes, if a cutting plant processes and stores meat and products containing meat on-site, it will need to be designated during an exotic disease outbreak.

The cutting plant pre-designation application form covers those operations.

Separate application forms will be available in the coming months for stand-alone cold stores and processing facilities.

This form covers:

• African swine fever (ASF)
• Classical swine fever (CSF)
• Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)
• Rinderpest
• Peste des petits ruminants (PPR)
• Swine vesicular disease (SVD)
• Sheep and goat pox

The new regulations are due to come into force at the end of 2025; they will only apply to England.

Possibly. Whether or not food business operators (FBOs) need to reapply for pre-designation will depend on the changes made to the legislation and how closely the existing application process meets the requirements of the new legislation.