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- About Your Licence
- Pet Food Establishment Licence
Pet Food Establishment Licence
What you need to know about a Pet Food Establishment licence.
Summary
- The law requires you to have a licence to process and sell pet meat.
- A pet food establishment is a facility that can retail or wholesale pet food or pet meat. It can also package and/or prepare pet food/meat for sale.
What you can do with a Pet Food Establishment licence
Get a Pet Food Establishment Licence to:
- receive pet meat from a Pet Meat Processing Facility
- retail or wholesale pet food or pet meat
- process pet food/meat for sale
- package pet food/meat for sale
- prepare pet food/meat for sale
- store pet food/meat for sale
PrimeSafe issues this licence under the Meat Industry Act 1993.
What you can’t do with a Pet Food Establishment licence
You cannot:
- slaughter consumable animals (get an Abattoir licence).
- slaughter poultry (get a Poultry Processing Facility licence).
- slaughter game (see Game Meat Processing licences).
- process, store, prepare or sell meat for human consumption (get a Retail Butcher Shop licence).
PrimeSafe licence conditions require all meat processing facilities to comply with relevant Australian and Victorian standards and guidelines.
The Standard for the Hygienic Production of Pet Meat (PISC Technical Report 88 – Amended 2009) describes the requirements for processing pet food.
With this licence you do not need management reviews or internal audits if you have less than 20 workers.
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.
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.
Pet food establishments are audited in the first week after opening and then once every year.
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
You can calculate the annual fee for a Pet Food Establishment licence by estimating the annual throughput of the facility. Throughput is defined as the weight (tonnes) of material brought into a facility for processing.
The current fee schedule for a Pet Food Establishment licence is:
| Annual Throughput | Application Fee ($) | Annual Fee ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 50 tonnes | 162 | 323 |
| 51 to 150 tonnes | 550 | 1,099 |
| Over 150 tonnes | 1,103 | 2,206 |
Calculate the total cost to apply today for a licence
To apply for a Pet Food Establishment 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 except for the lowest throughput category).
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 estimated annual throughput of your facility below.
Standards and guidelines that apply
This standard contains the minimum requirements for hygiene in harvesting, transportation, processing, identification, packaging and storage of pet meat, to ensure a safe and acceptable product.
We're here to help
Send us your questions and we'll get back to you in two to seven business days.
