[LeJambon]

Hi everyone,

I am raising some meat birds and hope to sell them to friends and family. I have registered my flock with defra and expect I will have to get a food safety certificate at some point. What else do I need to do to ensure everything is above board and make sure I don't get caught out?!

Thanks in advance

[benkt]

It depends a lot on how you intend to go about it.

 If you can find a place locally that will do small scale poultry slaughter and preparation then I suspect it will be very straightforward as they will have all the relevant licenses. All you will need is a refrigerated vehicle and storage facility and a food handling cert, I think, unless you can persuade the abattoir/butcher to let your customers pick up direct from them.

My understanding of it is that if you want to go DIY then you'll need to get licensed as a slaughter-man and provide suitable facilities on farm for the killing and preparation of the birds. Last time I checked there were 'easier' regulations for small producers (<10,000 birds a year). You required a minimum of three separate areas all capable of being washed/disinfected i.e. whitewashed walls and stainless steel fittings. One for slaughter, one for hanging (which must be temperature controlled) and one for plucking/gutting. Then you just need the storage and food handling bits as well.

We looked into it briefly for our community farm and decided against it at this stage as it we couldn't find somewhere to take small numbers of birds and process them for us and we couldn't afford to meet the rules and regulations required to do it ourselves. If anyone is doing small scale on farm slaughter and preparation legally in England then I'd love to hear from them!

[robert waddell]

i am sure you are allowed to do the above if you are small scale less than 50 birds annually    there was an article in farmers weekly many years ago 10-12 anyway       above 50 you defiantly need all the relevant certificates and buildings and most important insurance

[LeJambon]

Thanks for the info, it sounds like it could get very complicated. I have hopefully managed to find somewhere nearby to process them. That just leaves the collection, storage and selling bits to sort out. Much harder then I thought it would be!