How to verify an EU meat supplier

To verify an EU meat supplier, take the approval number from the oval mark on the carton or carcase and look it up in the lists of approved establishments Member States maintain in TRACES NT. The mark records what the operator printed; the register records what the authority granted, for which activities, and whether it still stands.

Approval is a legal act, not a logo

Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 lays down the specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin. Under Article 4(2), an establishment handling products for which Annex III lays down requirements may not operate unless the competent authority has approved it. Only primary production, transport, storage needing no temperature control and retail outside the Regulation's scope are excepted: slaughterhouses, cutting plants, minced meat and meat preparation plants, meat processing plants and cold stores are all in scope.

Article 148 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 sets the procedure: the competent authority makes an on-site visit on receipt of the application, and approves the establishment for the activities concerned only if the operator has demonstrated compliance with food law. Approval is reviewed at each official control, and Article 138(2)(j) allows the authority to suspend or withdraw it.

That number identifies one specific site with a defined list of permitted activities. In Spain the application goes to the competent authority of the autonomous community, and the establishment appears in the national register (RGSEAA) attached to AESAN under Real Decreto 191/2011.

Article 5 ties the number to the goods: a product of animal origin handled in an approval-required establishment may not be placed on the market unless it bears a health mark or an identification mark.

The oval mark, element by element

Annex II, Section I of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 sets the form of the identification mark. Three elements matter.

The mark must be legible and indelible, its characters easily decipherable, and clearly displayed for the competent authorities. Marks applied within the Union are oval.

Two consequences follow. First, the number in the oval identifies the establishment that applied the mark — not necessarily the slaughterhouse. Where packaging or wrapping is removed, or the product is further processed elsewhere, a new mark must show the approval number of the establishment where those operations take place. On a boneless leg re-packed at a third site, the oval identifies the re-packer; slaughter origin comes from traceability records under Article 18 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002.

Second, the mark must be applied before the product leaves the establishment of production; a mark added later, elsewhere, is not compliant.

Health mark and identification mark are different instruments

The identification mark is applied by the food business operator. The health mark is not: under Article 18(4) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 it goes on carcases of domestic ungulates, including pigs, once ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection has found nothing making the meat unfit, and it is applied by or under the responsibility of the official veterinarian. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/627 sets the practical arrangements.

In practice: a health mark on a carcase or half-carcase, an identification mark on a carton of cuts.

Checking the number in the official register

Under Article 45 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715, each Member State keeps its lists of approved establishments up to date in TRACES, and the Commission assists in making them public. The lists follow the Annex III sections of Regulation (EC) No 853/2004, plus a Section 0 for general activities.

Search by country and approval number, or browse by section. In the Commission's recommended layout, an entry shows the approval number, name, town or region, category, activities and species, with codes such as SH for slaughterhouse, CP for cutting plant and CS for cold store. A stand-alone cold store or re-packing site sits in Section 0.

What the register tells you that the mark cannot

• Whether approval is current. It can be suspended or withdrawn; a printed carton does not update itself.
• Whether the scope covers your product. Approval covers named activities: a Section VI entry does not authorise Section I work, and a CP code is not an SH code.
• Whether the identity matches your paperwork. The legal name and location on the invoice, packing list and certificate should match the entry.

An oval printed on a label is only a graphic: easy to reproduce, and it shows no live status. The register is the authoritative record; the mark is just a pointer into it.

EU approval is not export approval

Approval under Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 lets an establishment place product on the EU single market. It is not export approval. Spain's Ministry of Agriculture warns that importing countries sometimes accept only establishments they have listed themselves, on their own criteria, and that the destination should be asked whether prior authorisation is needed. If you are buying for onward shipment outside the EU, verify that listing separately.

What this means for your order

1. Ask for the approval number, legal name and location of every establishment in the chain — slaughter, cutting, cold store, re-packing.
2. Look each number up yourself and confirm section, category and activity codes against the product you are buying.
3. Check that the oval on the delivered goods matches the establishment named on the health certificate and packing list.
4. If product is re-packed after the plant of manufacture, expect the oval to change; ask in writing which site each mark belongs to.
5. For non-EU destinations, verify the destination-country listing as well as EU approval.
6. Keep a record: Article 18 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 requires you to identify who supplied you and to whom you supplied.

The check takes minutes and repeats at each shipment. Doing it on the register, not on the label, is the difference between verification and assumption.