Meat processors face £100k hit as inspection fees hiked by 24%
UK meat processors are bracing for a 24% rise in inspection charges from April, with some businesses facing up to £100,000 in additional annual costs.
The Food Standards Agency has confirmed that official controls charges will increase from 1 April 2026. Official controls cover mandatory veterinary and hygiene inspections at slaughterhouses and meat processing sites.
The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) has strongly criticised the move, claiming the increase has been introduced with insufficient notice and without meaningful engagement with the sector.
Dr Jason Aldiss, executive director of AIMS, described the decision as “totally unjustified, economically damaging, and indefensible”.
He argued that traditional meat inspection, as currently delivered, provides “no meaningful consumer protection”, yet businesses are being required to fund it at escalating cost.
AIMS claims companies are being charged for poorly trained inspection staff, inadequate supervision, multiple layers of management and trainee overseas vets under what it describes as a fragmented delivery model.
“This is not public protection,” Dr Aldiss said, branding the approach “regulatory profiteering”.
He added that the industry is paying record fees for a system that adds “cost, bureaucracy, and delay” while delivering no measurable improvement in food safety outcomes.
The association warned that the increase could accelerate plant closures, weaken domestic processing capacity and undermine food security at a time when the sector is already under pressure from rising energy and labour costs.
There are now just over 200 abattoirs operating in the UK, compared with around 2,500 in the 1970s, reflecting a long-term structural decline in domestic slaughter capacity.
Over the past year couple of years, efforts to reverse that trend have been supported by government initiatives such as the Small Abattoir Fund, aimed at sustaining local facilities and regional supply chains.
AIMS argues that further cost increases risk undermining those efforts.
“Traditional meat inspection offers no meaningful consumer benefit,” Dr Aldiss said, claiming members are funding “poorly trained staff and trainee vets”.
“This is profiteering off the back of hard-pressed businesses, with no added value,” he said, calling the situation “indefensible and unsustainable”.
In a direct challenge to the prime minister, AIMS asked: “Where is the pro-growth, pro-business agenda now, as the FSA clearly hasn’t received the memo?”
Dr Aldiss said the organisation is calling for the immediate suspension of the increase and a full independent review of the delivery of the inspection system.
The FSA has previously stated that official controls charges operate on a full cost recovery basis, in line with statutory requirements.
The dispute is likely to intensify debate over the cost and structure of the UK’s meat inspection regime, as processors and regulators clash over who should bear the financial burden of food safety oversight.
