Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme: Labelling requirements

Last updated: 9 September 2024

Individual labels are required on all prepacked meat, prepacked meat products, meat packed on sales premises, and some dairy products moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland under NIRMS. 

‘Prepacked’ means packed for the final consumer, so that the contents cannot be altered without opening or changing the packaging. 

‘Processing’ refers to any action that substantially alters the original product. This includes heating, smoking, curing, maturing, drying, marinating, extraction, extrusion, or a combination of any of those processes. 

Compound products are products that contain more than one product of animal origin (POAO) and no plant products other than those for flavouring. Compound products are included in phase 1 if they contain products in the phase 1 list. For example, a pâté that has a duck and a dairy product, or a steak with a butter pellet would be compound products and part of phase 1. This is because they only contain meat and dairy as the main ingredients and have a small amount of plant products for flavour. 

Find out how to identify compound products.

Prepacked meat

‘Meat’ is defined as the edible parts of any animal intended for human consumption. ‘Prepacked meat’ includes chilled, frozen, dried, and ambient meat.

Meat includes but is not limited to:

• red meats – lamb, beef, pork, steak, minced meat, veal, venison 
• game meats – rabbit, hares, rodents, game birds 
• ‘exotic’ meats which are intended for human consumption - kangaroo, ostrich 
• any domestic bovine species including bison and bubalus species 
• other domestic species of ‘red meats’ including swine, ovine, caprine and domestic solipeds 
• poultry including chickens, turkey, any farmed domestic birds, and any farmed wild birds 
• any wild game, including wild birds or wild land mammals, that are hunted for consumption, whether they are truly wild or kept in wild-like conditions to be hunted 
• any lagomorphs which live in the wild and are hunted for consumption 
• animal blood 
• meat preparations 
• fresh meat 
• any other products produced from parts of animals, including gelatine (sweets with gelatine do not need to be individually labelled as they are shelf-stable products)
• processed meat such as chicken nuggets – for example, chicken wings or breasts, any meat mince, steaks and joints, burgers, sliced meats, breaded chicken such as fillets, dippers or nuggets, duck or goose fat, pâté, and sausages including cocktail sausages

Prepacked meat products

These are meat products which have undergone an action that substantially alters the initial product, including heating, smoking, curing, maturing, drying, marinating, extraction, extrusion or a combination of those processes. 

These products could be fresh, chilled, frozen, deep-frozen or thawed.

Meat packed on sales premises

This is meat which is prepared and packed before sale to a consumer, such as:

• meat and animal origin products which are butchered on site, packaged and sold on the shop floor, like cuts of steak or lamb, fresh poultry or cuts of game
• meat products which are processed and packaged on site, like fresh mince products or burgers
• meat on supermarket deli or butcher counters where the product is packaged before sale

Some dairy products (including both prepacked and packed on sales premises)

This includes:

• pasteurised milk, buttermilk or cream products
• cottage cheese, quark cheese or raw (unprocessed) cheese, of any animal origin
• crème fraiche and sour cream