Food and drink companies need an environmental permit to operate if they carry out certain activities above set numerical thresholds.
These are:
- slaughtering animals
- disposing or recycling animal carcasses or animal waste, other then by rendering or incineration
- treating and processing animal materials for the production of food
- treating and processing vegetable materials for the production of food
- treating and processing milk
Regulatory guidance
For guidance relevant to regulated activities:
Depending on the volume of your output you may require a permit:
Our guidance on how to comply with your environmental permit describes the basic standards and measures that standard permit holders will need to know.
Specific technical guidance for the food and drink sector:
Our horizontal guidance provides additional detailed information on key topics for regulated industry covering noise, odour, energy efficiency and land protection that need to be taken into account.
These external links provide information about the wider regulatory framework:
Industrial Emissions Directive
The Industrial Emissions Directive may have a significant affect on some food and drink manufacturing businesses from 2013. Activities involving the treatment and processing of animal and vegetable raw materials are most affected.
- The impact of the IED on food and drink manufacturing
Pollution Inventory
If you hold an Environmental Permit as an EPR- IPPC installation we require you to take responsibility for accurately monitoring and reporting on your environmental performance through the pollution inventory.
Slaughtering and animal by-products industries performance review
We've carried out a technical review of the environmental performance of slaughterhouse and animal by-products industries. The review of 68 operational permitted sites highlighted several areas where operator performance could be improved by the adoption of established Best Available Techniques (BAT):
- reducing water and energy consumption
- treatment of high organic strength effluent
- prevention and control of odour
- increasing waste recovery and minimising waste disposal
- adapting to climate change and customer demands
- implementing rigorous and effective environmental management systems
We're working with operators, trade associations and partners to improve adoption of best practice identified through this review. The review will also inform our contribution to a European Union wide review of BAT through the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive.
