It is any operator who prepare, transformed, manipulate or warehouse products of animal origin or foodstuffs containing such products (e.g. meat, cold cuts, meat-based dishes) and which marketed fromother professionals.

The establishments concerned by therequirement for health approval are as follows:

• Slaughterhouse or cutting plant, except for on-farm slaughter of poultry, hares and rabbits (one declaration is sufficient)
• Cheese manufacturer or milk processing establishment
• Manufacturer of minced meat, meat products or preserved products of animal origin
• Freezer vessel and factory vessel, including crustacean and mollusk cooking vessel
• Auction market or tidal hall
• Wholesale or wholesale market for food products containing products of animal origin
• Fresh produce packer: milk collection center, egg packing center in particular
• A food establishment that sells ready meals to intermediaries.

The list of EC approved establishments in terms of health security (who hold this health approval) is available online.

Health approval is not not required for the following activities:

• Primary production (culture/breeding): rearing animals until slaughter, hunting, producing honey, eggs until they are packaged, raw milk on the farm without packaging, picking snails, for example. It should be noted that, for the direct sale to consumers of raw milk and eggs, a specific authorization is required.
• Transport of animals or products of animal origin
• Manufacture of composite products by assembling foodstuffs of plant origin (bread, semolina, vegetables in particular) and purchased foodstuffs already processed (ham, smoked salmon, cheese). These include pizza, quiche, sandwich, paella.
• Retail sale or direct delivery to consumers (subject to the obligation to manipulation declaration of food of animal origin)
• Storage of products of animal origin at the place of production.

The services from which the operator can obtain information are as follows:

Or for overseas:

The retail may benefit from a derogation from the authorization.

A retail operator supplying food of animal origin to another local retail establishment (e.g. a butcher supplying meat to a caterer) may apply for an exemption from health approval.

The distance as the crow flies between the establishment of the beneficiary of the derogation and the retail trade supplied must not exceed 80 km (distance may be extended up to 200 km by prefectural decision, due to particular geographical constraints).

The waiver is possible if the company provides a limited quantity per week of certain specified products.

* except minced meat

The quantities indicated are cumulative between products belonging to different categories (e.g. possible delivery of 800 kg of beef + 250 kg of cold cuts).

The request for exemption can be made either online or by post.

The application must be filed before the start of the activity.

The health approval is issued by the prefecture to an establishment for a given activity. If the company has several different activities, several approvals must be requested.

Approval shall be granted after the visit of a inspector the services of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The purpose of this visit is to check the premises, the equipment, the proper functioning of the site and the application of the PMS or health control plan (good hygiene practices, withdrawal/recall procedures in case of health alert, traceability system in particular).

The applicant may consult the guide to good hygiene practices (GBPH) relating to its activity.

The list of documents to be provided with this request (whether it is the online or the postal approach) is available online.

The application for health approval is made either online or by post.

Refusal is possible.

It can occur either as a result offile review request, or after a health inspection visit.

If the application file remains unanswered for more than 2 months, the case is considered rejected. The operator shall receive a acknowledgment of receipt from the date on which the administration receives the file. If documents are missing from the file or are non-compliant, she informs him and he must complete or correct it.

Operator receives approval conditional, which becomes final only after the visit of the health services. Approval may be refused if certain major non-conformities detected during the inspection are not corrected.

In some cases, the initial approval is no longer valid and the application has to be renewed.

The validity of the approval is not limited in time but must be renewed in case of change in the activity.

These are the following:

• Handling a new product category not in the original list
• Exercise of a new activity not in the original list
• Significant alteration of premises, their layout, equipment or use

The renewal of the application shall be carried out in the same way as an initial application for approval.

The documents accompanying the application must again be provided in their modified, updated version.

The request can be made either online or by post.

In the event of non-compliance with infrastructure, equipment or operational requirements, or non-compliance of a product endangering the health of the consumer, the approval may be suspended provisionally or removed.

Following a withdrawal or suspension of the health approval, the establishment can no longer manufacture or place its products on the market.

All products of animal origin from an approved establishment must be identifiable by a identification mark, also called health stamp or health mark.

The identification mark is oval in shape.

It shall include the following:

• Country Code 
• Department Number
• Number of the municipality
• Order number in the municipality granted to the establishment
• CE symbol indicating that it is an EU countryEU: titleContent.

This brand is called:

• Health mark on carcasses, half-carcasses and quarters in slaughterhouses of animals for slaughter
• Sanitary stamp on other products.

If the approved establishment produces both food subject to approval and food not subject to approval, it may affix the same identification mark to both types of food.

Aquaculture refers to all activities of animal production or vegetable in aquatic environment.

To be authorized to place on the market aquaculture animals, processing and aquaculture establishments must obtain animal health approval.

Each site of an aquaculture operation (farm or shellfish farming area) must be the subject of a separate application.

The person in charge of the aquaculture holding and mollusk farming areas shall carry out the following procedures:

• Keep a record of all movements in and out of aquaculture animals, indicating their origin, destination, number or weight and size
• Record the mortality observed in each epidemiological segment in relation to the type of production
• Implement good animal health practices to prevent the introduction and spread of diseases
• Collect the results of the animal health surveillance plan approved by the prefect. This collection makes it possible, on the basis of the analysis of the animal health risks for each type of production, to detect any unexplained and significant increase in mortality.

The operator must complete the following form:

Application for animal health approval for aquaculture

The form must be downloaded, printed, completed and sent to the Departmental Directorate of Population Protection (DDPP) which now includes veterinary services.