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Guide

Home butchery and the law

Butchering an animal for your own table and selling meat to anyone else are treated very differently in UK law. This guide sets out what the rules say, with the sources, so a home butchery course does not lead you somewhere you did not mean to go.

Nothing here is legal advice. It is the published position of the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and gov.uk, quoted with a link to each page. If you are planning to sell, your local authority's environmental health team is the first call.

What the rules say

• The FSA guidance defines home slaughter as slaughter of a livestock animal by its owner on their property for their own personal consumption, and says it may be done by a licensed slaughterer only under the owner's supervision.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Licensed slaughterers hold a Welfare at the Time of Killing (WATOK) licence or a Certificate of Competence.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• The guidance says 'The sale or gifting of meat from a home slaughtered animal is not permitted', and that supplying a farm shop or B&B guests is unlawful, because such meat must come from an approved slaughterhouse.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Carcases from home slaughter cannot be taken to another premises such as a butcher for processing even if the meat will be returned to the owner; dressing, cutting and storage must happen on the farm where the animal was slaughtered.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Advance notice to the local authority Animal Health and Welfare Team is best practice rather than a legal requirement, and if not possible the guidance advises notifying within 5 days after the slaughter.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Home-slaughtered pigs must still be recorded in the farm register and reported through the electronic animal movement licensing system (eAML2); unused parts of the carcass are animal by-products that cannot later be used as food.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• The FSA home slaughter guidance was first published on 10 September 2019 and last updated on 4 September 2026.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Each pig holding in England has a unique county parish holding (CPH) number from the Rural Payments Agency, and keepers must get a herd mark from APHA within 30 days of pigs arriving.Source: GOV.UK (APHA/Defra), checked 19 October 2026.
• After pigs are moved onto a holding there is a 20-day standstill, which does not apply when moving pigs directly to slaughter; movements on and off a holding must be reported on eAML2.Source: GOV.UK (APHA/Defra), checked 19 October 2026.
• GOV.UK says anyone who sells, cooks, stores, handles, prepares or distributes food may be a food business and must register with their local authority at least 28 days before trading; registration is free and can't be refused.Source: GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme ratings run from 5 (very good) to 0 (urgent improvement required), and businesses in England do not have to display their rating while display is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) allergen labelling rules (Natasha's Law) apply from 1 October 2021: labels need the name of the food, an ingredients list and any of the 14 allergens emphasised in the ingredients list.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.
• The 14 allergens to emphasise are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (above 10 ppm), and tree nuts.Source: Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK, checked 19 October 2026.

The line between private and commercial

The rules turn on who eats the meat. Food you process for your own household sits under one set of rules; the moment meat is supplied to anyone outside it, even without payment in some cases, you are a food business operator and the hygiene, registration and traceability requirements apply. The facts above give the detail and the sources.

Where an official source could not be read on the day we checked, the point is left out rather than guessed; we add it when the source is confirmed.

Sources

1. Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-slaughter-of-livestock-a-guide-to-the-law-in-england-and-wales/home-slaughter-of-livestock-a-guide-to-the-law-in-england-and-wales
2. Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-slaughter-of-livestock-a-guide-to-the-law-in-england-and-wales
3. GOV.UK (APHA/Defra): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/moving-pigs-what-keepers-need-to-know
4. GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/starting-a-food-business
5. Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-hygiene-rating-scheme/food-hygiene-rating-scheme
6. Food Standards Agency on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/labelling-guidance-for-prepacked-for-direct-sale-ppds-food-products/labelling-guidance-for-prepacked-for-direct-sale-ppds-food-products

General information, not legal, financial or careers advice. Every fact above links to the page it was taken from, with the date we checked it.