Act No. 96 the rearing and health of slaughter animals, slaughter, processing, health inspection and quality assessment of slaughter products.

This Act establishes Iceland’s legal framework for the rearing and health of slaughter animals, slaughtering, processing, health inspection, and quality assessment of slaughter products. Its purpose is to ensure that slaughter products are safe, wholesome, uncontaminated, produced under adequate hygiene conditions, correctly classified by type and quality, and accurately labelled. It applies to slaughter animals, slaughterhouses, meat-processing facilities linked to slaughterhouses, storage and transport of slaughter products, health inspections, sampling, quality grading, home slaughter, and wild game sent for further meat processing.
The Act requires slaughter for commercial distribution to take place in licensed slaughterhouses, with approved facilities for chilling, freezing, storage, and processing. It gives the Minister, Chief Veterinary Officer, meat inspection veterinarians, and meat graders powers to regulate and supervise hygiene, animal health, inspection before and after slaughter, sampling for diseases, contaminants and residues, handling of spoiled or infected products, quality grading, labelling, transport, export conditions, and access to premises for inspections. It also allows distribution bans, seizure and destruction of non-compliant products, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, fees to fund inspections and grading, and penalties for violations.