Register an animal feed business
You may need to register or apply for approval if your business makes, uses or markets animal feed. This is to ensure that the whole of the food chain is covered by hygiene requirements.
Under Feed Hygiene Regulation 183/2005, feed business operators must not operate without the appropriate registration or approval.
If your circumstances change, email trading.standards@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 41 20 20 to let us know.
Registration
You will need to register if you are engaged in animal feed activities where you:
- import feed
- manufacture feed, including pet food/treats
- sell/ distribute feed
- transport feed (for example a haulage company)
- store feed
- supply surplus food or co-products for use as feed
- keep and feed livestock animals (subject to certain exemptions, see below)
- farm fish
- are an arable farm growing crops for use as animal feed.
You do not need to register if you are:
- producing feed for your own animals, which are not kept for food production, or which are kept for your private domestic consumption only
- feeding animals which are not kept for food production, or which are kept for your private domestic consumption only
- produce and supply only small quantities of primary products to final consumers, or to local retailers, or to local farms for use as feed on those farms
- a retailer of pet food (please note, if you sell feed for horses or rabbits you do need to register with us).
Approval
Your business will only need to be approved if you carry out higher risk operations such as manufacturing, importing or marketing certain ingredients or additives or pre-mixtures of feed additives.
You can check which ingredients and additives are affected in Article 10(1)(a) of Regulation 183/2005. Those specified in regulation 2(3) are not affected.
If you’re unsure whether you need to be approved, contact us on 03000 41 20 20 for advice.
Registration is free.
Approval fees
Make your payment by sending a cheque made payable to Kent County Council to Kent County Council Trading Standards, PO Box 320, Ashford, TN24 8AS.
| Type of approval | Fee |
|---|---|
| Manufacture only or manufacture and placing on the market of feed additives or of premixtures of these additives | £451 |
| Placing feed additives or premixtures of these additives on the market | £226 |
Apply
If your business is involved in primary production (some farms), you must comply with the requirements in Annex I (PDF, 62.1 KB). This includes general hygiene and record-keeping.
Read further guidance from the Food Standards Agency about feed hygiene and primary producers.
All other feed businesses need to meet the requirements in Annex II (PDF, 136.8 KB). This includes:
- manufacturers
- some farm businesses (R10 registered)
- feed importers
- sellers
- haulage companies
- businesses storing feed
- food companies selling co-products for use as feed.
Annex II relates to facilities, personnel, quality control, storage and transport and record-keeping. You must also put in place and operate procedures based on the principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).
Annex III (PDF, 52.6 KB) relates to good animal feeding practices for food-producing animals. It includes the requirements for stable and feeding equipment, storage of feed, distribution, feed and water and personnel.
Registration
In the case of a registration, we will not usually visit you before issuing your registration document. We will contact you if we have any queries about your application.
We carry out routine inspections to businesses which have registered with us.
Approval
If you require approval, we will need to visit you to carry out an inspection.
We cannot refuse to issue a registration but we can take action to suspend or revoke it once issued.
We can refuse to issue an approval and can take action to suspend or revoke it once issued.
You can read full details of the appeals process on the legislation.gov.uk website.