License for operating a butcher's shop or a delicatessen

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In order to set up a business, the operator must first go to a business office. The professional manager of a butcher's shop or bacon butcher's shop must also have a licence.

To start a business

You must prove your basic management knowledge at a business counter. This is necessary to register a business with a commercial purpose with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises.

Starting a butcher or pork-butcher shop

Before starting to operate a butcher's shop or a delicatessen, you need to obtain a butcher's & pork butcher's licence. The butcher's & pork butcher's licence is required for selling, displaying for sale, and cutting fresh, prepared or conserved butcher's meat so as to sell it. The licence is delivered in the name of the responsible professional.

- If you wish to operate a butcher's shop and delicatessen, the responsible professional must provide proof of their professional capacities.

- Citizens from countries outside the European Economic Area must possess a professional card, unless they are exempted.

Conditions

The responsible professional must provide proof of their professional capacities:

- either by a degree from a vocational school;

- or by a apprenticeship certification;

- or by three years full-time professional experience or four years part-time, certified by an NSSO certificate or a social insurance fund for self-employed persons or by any other documentary proof.

Validity period

This license remains valid as long as the conditions of grant are not modified.

A new license must be requested when changing

• the professional manager or operator
• the legal form of the holding 

Applying for the licence

You must send the following documents to Brussels Economy and Employment:

• the completed butcher-butcher's licence application form (Right click > Save as")
• proof of the professional abilities of the professional manager (diploma, apprenticeship certificate or proof of professional experience),
• where applicable, the articles of association of the company,
• where applicable, the original of the butcher's licence already granted for the business concerned, or a sworn statement, in the event of loss or theft of that licence.

Other formalities to be completed later

• obtain the authorisation of the Food Inspectorate of the FPS Social Affairs, Public Health and Environment;
• register with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises via an approved business counter;
• comply with VAT obligations;
• join a social insurance fund and a mutuality.