Processed Food and Slaughterhouses
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many (a) abattoirs and (b) food processing plants in (i) England and (ii) the UK are family-owned businesses.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
This information is not held by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). There are 232 abattoirs approved by the FSA in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The FSA is aware of which are sole traders, partnerships, and which are incorporated companies, but it does not hold any central list indicating which are family-owned. This level of detail is not required to facilitate the delivery of Official Controls.
The majority of food processing plants are overseen by local authorities, and while their trading names are published by the FSA and Food Standards Scotland, this does not give an indication of the makeup of ownership.
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