- Licensing
- About Your Licence
- Retail Butcher Shop Licence
Retail Butcher Shop Licence
What you need to know about getting a licence to operate a butcher shop.
Summary
- In Victoria you need a Retail Butcher Shop licence to operate a butcher shop.
- A retail butcher shop is a facility that sells meat or poultry for human consumption.
- Retail butcher shops can also wholesale up to one tonne of product each week. This is on top of your retail sales without the need to upgrade your licence.
What you can do with your Retail Butcher Shop licence
Get a Retail Butcher Shop licence to:
- sell meat from a retail shop
- sell less than 50 tonnes of meat through wholesale sales each year from a retail shop
- process and store meat mainly for retail sale.
PrimeSafe issues this licence under the Meat Industry Act 1993.
What you can’t do with your Retail Butcher Shop licence
You cannot:
- slaughter animals (get an Abattoir licence).
- slaughter poultry (get a Poultry Processing Facility licence).
- wholesale more than 50 tonnes of meat each year (get a Further Meat Processing Facility licence).
- sell pet food (get a Pet Food Establishment licence).
- 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.
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.
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.
A retailer butcher shop does not need management reviews or internal audits if you have less than 20 workers.
There are additional requirements if you want to manufacture smallgoods or age beef. Find more information at Small Goods Meat Products Technical Guideline or Aging of Beef Technical Guideline
Retail butcher shops are audited in the first week after opening and then once per year.
A retail butcher shop that manufactures smallgoods has two audits per year.
Audits are conducted by a PrimeSafe approved auditor.
Find out more 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 December.
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
| Annual Throughput | Application Fee ($) | Annual Fee ($) |
| Meat and/or poultry only | 190 | 379 |
| Meat/poultry and smallgoods | 381 | 762 |
You need a Further Meat Processing licence if you wholesale more than 50 tonnes of meat each year.
Calculate the total cost to apply today for a licence
To apply for a Retail Butcher Shop licence you need to pay:
- the application fee (paid once only)
- the licence fee (paid when you first apply and then every year in December).
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 select your business type below.
Read the standards and guidelines that apply to this licence
Use this standard for processing and storing meat and meat products at retail premises for human consumption.
Use this standard when you are processing, transporting and/or storing meat and meat products for human consumption.
Use this standard when manufacturing packaged Ready to Eat (RTE) meat or purchasing RTE meat products for slicing, portioning and packaging for sale.
We're here to help
Send us your questions and we'll get back to you in two to seven business days.
