GB Establishment Number Lookup — Check Any UK Meat Code Free

Turn over a pack of supermarket chicken and somewhere on the back label you’ll find a line like “Slaughtered in: GB 2037”. Four digits, no explanation. That number is not random — it is the FSA approval number of the exact slaughterhouse the bird came from, and you can trace it in about ten seconds.

Type the digits into the meat code lookup — just the number, no GB prefix — and you get the slaughterhouse name, the species it handles, whether it processes pork, and whether it holds HMC certification. This guide explains what the number is, walks through four real codes, and covers what each result means for a halal shopper.

What is a GB establishment number?

Every piece of meat legally sold in Great Britain must carry a health mark identifying the approved facility that processed it. It appears in two formats:

• The oval stamp — a purple oval pressed onto the carcass in food-grade ink, with “GB” on top and the number below. You’ll see this on butcher’s carcasses and some whole cuts.
• Printed label text — on supermarket packs, the same number usually appears as plain text: “Slaughtered in: GB 2037” or “Cut in: UK 5416”.

Same number, different presentation. The prefix tells you the regulator: GB establishments are registered with the FSA (England and Wales), UK-prefixed codes are frequently Scottish facilities under Food Standards Scotland, and NI codes are Northern Irish facilities under DAERA.

The number itself is the part that matters. It maps to one specific building, one company, one set of slaughter practices — which is exactly why it is useful for halal verification. The stamp itself is a food-safety mark, not a religious one: it confirms inspection and approval, nothing about slaughter method. The oval code guide covers the stamp’s legal background in more depth; this post is about using the number.

Slaughtered in vs Cut in — which number do you check?

Many packs carry two codes, and they are not interchangeable:

• “Slaughtered in” — the abattoir where the animal was killed. This is the code to look up. Halal slaughter happens (or doesn’t) here.
• “Cut in” — the cutting plant that portioned and packed the meat afterwards. A separate facility with its own number.

If the pack shows only one code inside an oval, it is usually the establishment that last processed the product. For halal purposes, always prefer the “Slaughtered in” line when both are printed.

Four real codes, looked up

Here is what the lookup tool returns for four numbers that real users have searched on this site — including two, 2037 and 2750, that people type straight into our search bar:

Code	Establishment	What it handles	Result
GB 2037	2 Sisters Food Group Ltd, Scunthorpe	Poultry	❓ Certification unverified
GB 2750	Cranswick Country Foods Eye, Yaxley	Poultry	❓ Certification unverified
GB 4227	Manchester Abattoir Ltd, Stockport	Lamb and goat	✅ HMC certified
GB 2060	Karro Food Ltd (Malton Bacon Factory)	Pork	❌ Handles pork

GB 2037 is a large poultry slaughterhouse and cutting plant in Scunthorpe operated by 2 Sisters Food Group. The FSA register records no pork handling — but the site does not appear on the HMC certified supplier list either. That combination produces the “unverified” result: not haram by default, but not confirmed halal by the strictest UK standard. The pack’s certification logo is what settles it.

GB 2750 tells the same story for Cranswick’s poultry site near Yaxley: poultry only, no pork recorded, no HMC listing. Unverified.

GB 4227 is the opposite case — Manchester Abattoir in Stockport slaughters lamb and goat and appears on the HMC certified list. HMC (Halal Monitoring Committee) requires unstunned hand slaughter with continuous on-site monitoring, so meat traced to this establishment meets the strictest mainstream UK halal standard. There are currently only 6 HMC-certified slaughterhouses among the 202 establishments in our database.

GB 2060 is Karro Food’s Malton Bacon Factory — a registered pork processor. Any establishment slaughtering pigs is unsuitable for halal meat by every standard, regardless of what else it handles. Of the 202 establishments we track, 87 are registered pork handlers — which is exactly why checking the number is worth the ten seconds.

What do the three results mean?

The lookup returns one of three statuses, and the middle one is the most misunderstood:

✅ HMC Certified — Halal. The establishment appears on HMC’s certified supplier list: unstunned hand slaughter, individual tasmiyah, continuous monitoring. This is the strictest widely recognised UK standard.

❌ Handles Pork — Not Halal. The FSA register records porcine processing at this facility. No halal standard accepts meat from a pig-slaughtering site.

❓ Certification Unverified. No pork handling recorded, but the site is not on the HMC list. This does not mean the meat is haram. Many of these establishments hold HFA (Halal Food Authority) or other certification — HFA permits pre-stunning and machine slaughter under conditions, which HMC does not, and HFA certifies many of the poultry sites supplying supermarket halal ranges. The lookup currently cross-references HMC only, so an unverified result means: check the pack for a certifier logo, and let that logo decide. The differences between the two bodies are broken down in our HMC vs HFA comparison, and the stunning question specifically in the machine-slaughtered chicken analysis.

Why isn’t my code in the database?

Three common reasons:

1. It’s a UK or NI prefix. The database is built from the FSA Approved Establishments register, which covers England and Wales only. Scottish codes (Food Standards Scotland) and Northern Irish codes (DAERA) are not included yet — Scottish beef and lamb packs are the most frequent case.
2. It’s a “Cut in” code. Cutting plants, cold stores, and repackers have their own numbers. Our database focuses on establishments in the slaughter chain; look for the “Slaughtered in” line instead.
3. It’s imported meat. An oval with IE, NL, PL, or another country code is an EU establishment — outside the GB register entirely.

When a code isn’t found, the tool says so plainly rather than guessing. In that case fall back on the two checks that always work: the certification logo on the pack, and the producer’s customer-service line.

Does the establishment number prove the meat is halal?

No — and it’s worth being precise about what it does and doesn’t tell you.

What it tells you: where the animal was slaughtered, what species that site handles, whether pigs go through the same facility, and whether the site holds HMC certification.

What it cannot tell you: whether this specific animal was slaughtered by the halal method at a mixed-production site, whether an HFA or other certification applies, or anything about added ingredients. Standard supermarket chicken is not halal even when the slaughterhouse records no pork — conventional and halal lines can run through the same approved establishment.

So the working order at the shelf is: logo first, number second. The HMC or HFA logo is the primary evidence; the establishment lookup is the verification layer behind it — and the fastest way to catch a pork-handling site. For marinated, breaded, or processed meat products, the ingredients list adds a third layer: coatings and marinades carry their own additives, which you can check in seconds with the ingredient scanner or the E-codes database.

How we source this data

The lookup is built from two public Tier-1 sources, cross-referenced:

• The FSA Approved Establishments register (England and Wales) — establishment numbers, company names, addresses, species handled, and recorded activities including porcine processing.
• The HMC certified supplier list at halalhmc.org — which slaughterhouses hold current HMC certification.

The database currently covers 202 establishments and is refreshed from both registers; the update month is shown on the lookup page itself. We do not infer halal status beyond what these registers state — an establishment with no pork recorded and no HMC listing is reported as unverified, never assumed halal. Which UK chains stock certified meat, and under which certifier, is covered separately in our supermarket halal meat comparison, and the slaughter requirements themselves in what makes meat halal.

Summary

Question	Answer
What is the GB number on meat packs?	The FSA approval number of the slaughterhouse or processing plant
Which code do I check for halal?	The “Slaughtered in” number — not “Cut in”
Does it prove halal status?	No — it traces the facility; the certification logo is the primary evidence
What does “unverified” mean?	Not on the HMC list, no pork recorded — check the pack for HFA or another certifier
Where do I look a code up?	Type the digits into any search bar on this site, or at /meat-code/

Next time a pack says “Slaughtered in: GB 2037”, you know exactly what to do with it. Type the number into the meat code lookup — and for everything else on the label, the HalalCodeCheck scanner reads the ingredients list for you.