Regulatory Models Compared

The single decision that fixes the rest of the plan is who is allowed to buy the meat. Mobile vs. fixed is a secondary choice. Under custom-exempt, the buyer must own the live animal before slaughter. Under inspection, the meat can be sold to anyone the stamp covers.

Side by side

Sources: 9 CFR 303.1, FSIS MSU compliance guide, Va. Code Ch. 54, VDACS custom-exemptions guide.

Custom-exempt in Virginia: what is actually allowed

From the VDACS OMPS guide (undated, probably 2019–2022):

• Mobile units and split work. A mobile unit can kill on-farm, and the owner can send the carcass to a different custom operator for hanging and cutting. That handoff makes a kill-only mobile unit plus partner cut shop legal in Virginia. Field-dressed carcasses may be accepted.
• Selling the animal is fine. The operator may sell the live animal to the customer, then custom-slaughter it as the new owner’s agent (Notes 4, 18). The sale must be priced on the live animal (live weight or per head). The operator may charge only a service fee, never a price for the meat (Note 17).
• Shares are fine. A live animal can have several owners if proof of ownership exists and the owner list exists before slaughter (Notes 15–16). There is no limit on head per owner. With written consent, trim from different owners may be commingled (Note 14).
• The seller-participation trap. If a farm lets a buyer slaughter on-site, that is personal use and needs no permit. If the seller helps with slaughter or processing, the facility owner needs a Custom Permit.
• Specified risk materials (SRMs). For cattle ≥30 months: skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia. For all cattle: distal ileum and tonsils. Inedible material must be controlled so it can’t end up in food.

The statute itself contains no custom license, no fee schedule and no mention of mobile units. Custom-exempt operation rests entirely on the federal-parity exemption in § 3.2-5405 A 9 plus VDACS administrative practice. Any construction standards for mobile units would sit in 2VAC5 regulations, which have not been checked.

USDA-inspected MSU: what changes

• Same rules as a fixed plant, plus overhead that is specific to being mobile:
  • Per-site wastewater approval. Each slaughter site needs a local health-authority letter covering wastewater, and that letter is “required to obtain and uphold terms of the grant”. Every new farm stop means paperwork with VDH or the county.
  • Water. Potability must be documented at each site, and private wells at recurring sites renewed semi-annually.
  • Pens. Each site needs an ante-mortem pen, a holding pen for U.S. Suspects, and a covered pen for diseased or disabled animals.
• Inspector availability. FSIS itself warns that staffing MSUs “may present a challenge”. Schedule changes need District Office approval. A seasonal operation can request a voluntary suspension of up to 120 days.
• Inconsistent inspection review. At Island Grown in 2009, a three-month FSIS Food Safety Assessment demanded more E. coli testing than the co-op’s lab could run. NMPAN’s lesson: “EIAOs are not all alike and may interpret the same regulation differently” (NMPAN manual).
• Firearm stunning means the head cannot be saved for edible product, except the tongue.
• The FSIS guide dates from about 2010, predates the 2017 consolidation of FSIS districts, and does not cover SRMs. Treat it as a checklist, not current law.

Virginia state inspection

Va. Code § 3.2-5403 requires the state program to be “at least equal to” the FMIA. § 3.2-5404 marks product “Virginia Inspected and Passed”, and § 3.2-5405 A 6 funds the program 50:50 with USDA. This is the Talmadge-Aiken / state MPI structure, although the statute never uses that name.

Contradiction resolved (round 2). The MPIRG source file inferred that Virginia has no equal-to state program. FSIS’s own state-MPI list confirms that Virginia does run one (VDACS OMPS). It also confirms that Virginia is not in CIS. Only 10 states participate (OH, ND, WI, IN, ME, MO, IA, VT, SD, MT), and West Virginia isn’t one of them. State-inspected product “can only be sold within that State”. Maryland and Pennsylvania have no state programs. A Winchester operator selling into MD, WV or DC therefore needs USDA inspection (FSIS CIS/MPI lists).

Getting a Virginia grant of inspection (VDACS guide, Jan 2026): - Application package: form VDACS-03090, a plot plan (hand-drawn is acceptable), a water potability letter and lab report, sewage approval, SSOP, HACCP plan, recall plan, and the beef humane-handling, SRM and STEC measures. - Cost: inspection is free for five consecutive 8-hour days per shift each week. Overtime is billed in tenth-hour increments, with a 2-hour call-back minimum. - Conditional grant: issued after an onsite review, with 90 days to validate HACCP. - Mobile units: the guide links to the FSIS mobile slaughter compliance guide but has no mobile-unit text of its own. Fixed-site items (plot plan, well letter, sewage letter) would need answers for each docking site (VDACS grant guide).

Regulations: 2VAC5-210 (not 2VAC5-60, which is a repealed livestock-markets rule): - It adopts 9 CFR Subchapters A and E as of the Jan 1, 2021 edition, reading “Federal” as “Virginia” and “interstate” as “intrastate”. Later FSIS amendments may not apply in Virginia yet. - 2VAC5-210-30 requires anyone using the 9 CFR 303.1(a)(2) custom exemption to “apply for and receive a permit of exemption”. This is the regulatory basis for the VDACS Custom Permit. - No mobile-unit provisions (2VAC5-210).

Where meat may be sold (VDACS selling guide, May 2025): farmers’ markets, restaurants, retail and online sales all need USDA- or OMPS-inspected product. Red-meat sellers “may be required to apply for a Meat Handlers Permit”. The guide is silent on custom-exempt shares, which confirms that custom beef has no retail channel (selling guide).

Pending law: do not plan on it

• PRIME Act (H.R. 4700 / S. 2409, introduced 2025-07-23): would let custom-exempt meat be sold in-state to households and restaurants, but only where state law opts in. Status as of 2026-10-02: introduced. Virginia’s own Rep. Cline is a cosponsor.
• Farm bill pilot, Sec. 12114 (H.R. 7567, House-passed 2026-04-30, now in the Senate): custom-exempt facilities could sell direct to consumers in-state, with no resale, an “uninspected” label, and at least annual inspection. The cap is 5 facilities per state, and inspected establishments are ineligible. Sec. 12112 of the same bill would direct FSIS to publish scale-appropriate model HACCP plans for slaughter-only small plants.
• Confidence: high on the bill text; medium on the House-passage date and current Senate status, which come from a single GovTrack read.

See Custom-Exempt Share Sales for what this means for revenue.

Open regulatory questions

1. Waste disposal at each site. Mostly answered in round 2: on-farm composting is likely exempt under 9VAC20-81-95 D.4. See Slaughter Waste Disposal in Virginia. Blood and wash-water rules (VDH, DEQ VPA) are still unsourced.
2. 2VAC5 Resolved: 2VAC5-210 requires a permit of exemption and has no mobile-unit provisions. Still open: does OMPS have an unwritten policy or equipment checklist for mobile custom units?
3. CIS Resolved: Virginia is not a CIS state.
4. Meat Handlers Permit. What it requires, and whether a cut-and-wrap partner selling inspected product needs one.
5. Retail exemption. The 9 CFR 303.1(d) retail exemption excludes slaughter, and its “normal retail quantity” for cattle is 300 lb (half a carcass). Is it relevant to a cut-and-wrap partner selling inspected product?

See Also

• Custom-Exempt Share Sales
• Why Mobile Slaughter Units Fail
• Mobile Beef Processing Business Plan
• Shenandoah Valley Market and Funding