Does your food and drink business require a PPC permit?

You may require a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit from your environmental regulator or local council. For example, you will need a permit if your business has a production capacity above a certain level or if you use certain hazardous substances.

If your business is an installation or mobile plant you will need a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit from your environmental regulator.

An installation is a stationary technical unit, such as a self-contained building, permanent structure or fixed plant, used for listed activities.

A mobile plant is plant that can be moved and is used for listed activities.

Listed activities

These are industrial, waste or intensive farming activities that have an impact on the environment and are listed in the PPC regulations. They are split into categories:

  • Part A, B and C in Northern Ireland
  • Part A and B in Scotland

Listed activities that might be carried out by food and drink businesses include:

Permit Categories
Listed activity Northern Ireland Scotland

Slaughtering animals in slaughter houses, other than in mobile plant, with a carcass production capacity greater than 50 tonnes per day.

Part A

Part A

Treating and processing milk, where the average quantity of milk received is greater than 200 tonnes per day

Part A

Part A

animal raw materials (other than milk) at a plant with a finished product production capacity greater than 75 tonnes per day

Part A

Part A

vegetable raw materials at a plant with an average finished product production capacity greater than 300 tonnes per day or 600 tons per day for seasonal production that is for no more than 90 consecutive days per year.

Part A

Part A

Combined animal and vegetable materials (eg soup production), examples of which are in the table below

Part A

Part A

Processing, storage or drying by heat of any part of a dead animal or of vegetable matter, unless it is an exempt activity, which may result in the release into the air oxides of sulphur, nitrogen or carbon as well as other materials, or give rise to an offensive smell noticeable outside the premises in which the activity is carried on

Part C

Part B

Unless falling within Part A of this section, treating feathers by hydrolysis where hydrogen sulphide or other sulphur containing compounds may be released into the air

Part B

Part B

Combined animal and vegetable quantities for Part A permits

% of animal raw material by weight Number of tons per day of total production

More than or equal to 10%

75

8%

120

6%

165

4%

210

2%

255

0

300

Formula for calculation 300 – (22.5 x A) where A is % animal raw materials by weight

What you must do

If your installation or mobile plant carries out listed activities you will need a permit from your environmental regulator.

Permits and regulators for listed activities

Activity category Northern Ireland Scotland

Part A

PPC permit regulated by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)

PPC permit regulated by SEPA

Part B

PPC permit regulated the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)

PPC permit regulated by SEPA

Part C

PPC permit regulated by local council

N/A

Contact your environmental regulator

You should contact your environmental regulator or local council for further information about listed activities. NetRegs does not provide detailed guidance on Part A activities.

If you are unsure whether you are affected by PPC, contact your environmental regulator or local council.

How to apply for a permit

Return to the menu of the PPC Permits by sector environmental topic