About GB 4481
Bells Fishmongers Limited is based in Carlisle (CA3), England. The Food Standards Agency approves it for handling wild game, re-wrapping and repacking and cutting meat, for wild birds, wild rabbits and hares and deer and wild game.
Is meat from GB 4481 halal?
The code shows which plant cut, prepared or packed the meat, not whether it is halal. Look for a halal logo from a named certifier, such as HMC or HFA, or ask the brand which certifier approves the product. More in halal meat codes.
What this approval means for halal
A game handling approval covers wild game such as deer, wild birds and rabbits. Hunted animals are not slaughtered in the way farm animals are, so scholars apply different rules to them. Ask a scholar you trust before relying on a pack.
A re-wrapping approval means the plant unwraps and packs meat again without preparing it. A pack can carry this plant's code while the meat was slaughtered and cut elsewhere, so the supplier before the repack matters.
A cutting plant cuts carcasses into joints and portions. It does not slaughter animals, so the meat arrives from a slaughterhouse and the halal question moves upstream: where the meat came from, and whether halal meat is kept apart from non-halal meat while it is cut.
What to ask before you rely on it
- How were the animals killed, and is that accepted by a scholar you follow?
- Who supplied the meat before it was repacked?
- Does the halal certificate cover the repacking step?
- Which slaughterhouses supply this plant, and are they halal certified?
- Is halal meat cut on separate lines or at separate times from non-halal meat?
Ask the brand on the pack, or the halal certifier named on it. Plants rarely publish this, so a written answer from the brand is the best evidence.
Meat plants in the area
The CA postcode area has 8 approved meat plants in the Food Standards Agency list, 2 of them slaughterhouses and 8 cutting plants. England has 731 in total.