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- About Your Licence
- Abattoir Licence
Abattoir Licence
What you need to know about an Abattoir licence.
Summary
- An abattoir is a facility that slaughters consumable animals for human consumption.
- The law requires you to have a licence to slaughter animals to sell their meat for human consumption.
- You need PrimeSafe approval to add new species to your licence once you already have a licence.
What you can do with an Abattoir licence
Get an Abattoir licence to slaughter consumable animals for human consumption.
Your Abattoir licence allows you to operate the following if all the meat and by-products come from your abattoir:
- further meat processing facility
- retail butcher shop
- prime tallow processing facility
- inedible rendering facility.
PrimeSafe issues this licence under the Meat Industry Act 1993.
What you can’t do with an Abattoir licence
You cannot slaughter:
- Poultry (get a Poultry Processing Facility licence).
- Game (see Game Meat Processing licences).
- Consumable animals to sell their meat for pet food (get a Pet Meat Processing facility licence).
- Consumable animals on a farm and eat the meat yourself (you do not need a PrimeSafe licence to do this).
You cannot transport meat or seafood (get a Meat Transport Vehicle licence).
PrimeSafe licence conditions require all meat processing facilities to comply with relevant Australian and Victorian standards and guidelines. For:
- cattle, sheep, pig, deer, goat, camel and buffalo, this is the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption (AS 4696:2007).
- farmed rabbit, this is the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production of Rabbit Meat for Human Consumption (AS 4466:1997).
- emu and ostrich, this is the Australian Standard for Hygienic Production of Ratite (Emu/Ostrich) Meat for Human Consumption (AS 5010:2001).
When we give you a licence, you need to meet the licence conditions. Get help from us if you don’t understand your licence conditions.
Contact us if you want to add new species to your licence once you already have a licence.
There are things your business needs to do before we can give you a licence. To learn about preparing your business before you apply and how to apply, read Apply for a licence.
To learn about procedures for post-mortem inspection and anti-morten and post-mortem dispositions go to Australian Meat Regulators Group Guideline 2020:1
Abattoirs are audited in the first week after opening and then every week until their Quality Assurance Program is fully implemented. Abattoirs then have audits every six months.
Audits are conducted by a PrimeSafe approved auditor.
Find out about Audits.
There is an application fee when you apply for a new licence.
There is an annual fee to hold a licence that you pay each year in June.
There are other charges when you hold a licence with PrimeSafe.
You may have to pay a fine if you do not meet your licence conditions.
PrimeSafe follows the Department of Treasury and Finance’s guideline for setting fees and charges.
Our current fees
Calculate the annual fee for an abattoir by estimating the annual throughput of the facility. Throughput is the number of units slaughtered at your facility each year.
We use the following measures to calculate the number of units of throughput of an abattoir:
- 1 cattle = 5 units
- 1 rabbit = 0.2 units
- 1 other stock = 1 unit.
The current fee schedule for an abattoir licence is:
| Annual Throughput | Application Fee ($) | Annual Fee ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 15,000 units | 1,106 | 2,212 |
| 15,001 to 200,000 units | 1,977 | 3,953 |
| 200,001 to 500,000 units | 3,956 | 7,911 |
| Over 500,000 units | 5,775 | 11,549 |
When your facility is supervised by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry you pay no more than $1,098 to apply for a licence and $2,195 each year. Otherwise, the amount you pay increases as your throughput increases.
Calculate the total cost to apply today for a licence
To apply for an Abattoir licence you need to pay:
- the application fee (paid once only)
- the licence fee (paid when you first apply and then every year in June).
The amount you pay when you apply depends upon the time left until the licence is renewed in June (pro rata).
Use the Fee Calculator to see what you will pay today to apply for a licence.
All PrimeSafe fees are GST exempt so we will not give you a tax invoice when you pay.
Fee Calculator
Please enter the number of animals slaughtered per annum – complete all the fields below.
Standards and guidelines that apply
Use this standard when you are processing, transporting and/or storing meat and meat products for human consumption.
Use this standard to process and store wholesome rabbit meat for human consumption.
Use this standard to process, store and transport ratite (emu/ostrich) meat for human consumption.
We're here to help
Send us your questions and we will get back to you in two to seven business days.
