The Food Standards Agency has today started the regular publication of audit reports of approved meat plants in England, Scotland and Wales. This marks the beginning of routine publication of these reports, in line with the FSA’s commitment to transparency.
More than 200 audit reports are being published today. These cover all audits that have been completed since 1 November 2011. From now on, audit reports will be issued at the end of each month (about 200 each month).
FSA approval is required before a meat plant can operate (this includes slaughterhouses, cutting plants and game handling establishments). There are 1,200 FSA-approved meat plants in Great Britain, and 60 in Northern Ireland.
The FSA is currently reviewing audit arrangements with the aim of making them easier to understand, both for the food business operator and for people not involved in the meat industry. Once this review is complete, the Agency will publish audits for all approved meat plants across the UK, including Northern Ireland.
Tim Smith, Chief Executive of the FSA, said: ‘We think it’s important that people have access to this type of information; it shows not only the FSA’s commitment to publishing all useful information but we hope publication will also help businesses to maintain high standards in this vital food sector.’
As audit reports are technical documents, the FSA has produced explanatory notes to accompany their publication. The reports and guidelines can be found at the link below.

Audit of meat establishments
The FSA carries out routine audits of approved meat establishments (that is slaughterhouses, cutting plants and game handling establishments) in Great Britain.
These audits have two main aims:
to make sure that food business operators are complying with food law requirements
to ensure that food business operators are meeting relevant standards in relation to public health and, in slaughterhouses, animal health and welfare
How often are audits carried out?
When determining how often to audit a business, the type of processes carried out, the throughput and the food business operator’s record of compliance are considered.
The greater the potential risk to public health and, in slaughterhouses, to animal health and welfare, the more often the audit. The audit frequency currently varies from at least once every two months, to three, five or eight months.

Publication of audit reports
Audits completed after 1 November 2011 for FSA approved meat establishments in England, Scotland and Wales are published at the link below. These are as issued to the food business operator, but potentially sensitive information has been taken out(such as a personal details) and detailed technical information.
FSA have listed establishments by their approval number, name and type (red or white meat slaughterhouse, red or white meat cutting plant or approved game handling establishment), their town, county and country.
The link below will take you to a separate Excel worksheet. You will need to enable the macros in order to open it. Instructions are in the worksheet. Clicking on the links in the final column of the worksheet will take you to the individual audit report for the selected establishment.
The audit reports are updated on the FSA website on a monthly basis (typically towards the end of each month). Food business operators have up to 28 days to appeal an audit and the FSA won’t publish an audit report on the website before this time has passed. Therefore, as the FSA are only publishing audits completed after 1 November 2011, it will take a while for the website to have audits for each and every FSA approved meat establishment.

Food Business Operator Audits
Source FSA here