A withdrawal period is the wait between an animal's last dose and the day its meat or milk can go for human consumption. Get the date wrong and the problem lands on the farm, not on the bottle.
A withdrawal period is the minimum time after an animal's last dose before its meat, milk or eggs can enter the food chain. Read it from the product label, datasheet or your vet's prescription. For a cascade prescription in Great Britain the legal floor is 28 days for meat and 7 days for milk where the product has no food-animal or milk authorisation, and 1.5 times the longest authorised period where it does. Count from the last dose, write the meat and milk end dates in your medicine book, and never shorten the wait.
A withdrawal period, sometimes called a withhold period, is the time that must pass after the last dose of a medicine before the animal's meat or milk can be used for human consumption. NADIS describes it as the wait until residues have fallen below the maximum residue level. It is set per product and per species, and meat and milk usually differ.
It is also a record you must make. When a keeper treats a food-producing animal, regulation 19 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 says you record, at the time, the product, the date, the quantity, the withdrawal period and which animals were treated. Our guide to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations on the farm covers the rest.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate samples meat and milk from farms and abattoirs and investigates over-limit results. In its 2025 residues results paper, the cause given for positives is repeatedly an animal sent for slaughter inside a withdrawal period. Usually that is a date nobody wrote down, not carelessness.
Start with the label and the datasheet (the summary of product characteristics). It lists meat and offal and milk separately per species, and milk is often in hours. The NOAH Compendium publishes a withdrawal periods table by product.
Never assume two products with the same active ingredient share a figure. NADIS advises checking it each time a medicine is bought and used, because it can differ between products and change for the same medicine. My advice: read it when the box arrives, and photograph the label so the figure travels with the batch number.
If a vet prescribes, the prescription is the second place to look. For food-producing animals a written prescription must state the withdrawal period, or that it is zero days. If the instruction was verbal, ask for it in writing.
One trap: the printed figure belongs to the dose, route and duration on the label. If your vet takes you outside those, you need a new figure from them in writing. The farm vets directory can help you find a practice.
The cascade lets a vet use a medicine outside its authorisation when nothing authorised will do. For food-producing animals, Schedule 4 of the 2013 Regulations says the vet must specify an appropriate withdrawal period and sets minimums. These are the England, Scotland and Wales figures since the 17 May 2024 amendments.
| Produce | Great Britain minimum | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| Meat and offal | 1.5 times the longest datasheet period; 28 days if not authorised for food-producing animals; 1 day for a zero-day product | 28 days |
| Milk | 1.5 times the longest datasheet period; 7 days if not authorised for milk-producing animals; 1 day for a zero-hour product | 7 days |
| Eggs | 1.5 times the longest datasheet period; 14 days if not authorised for laying birds | 7 days |
Fractions of a day round to the nearest day, halves up. A milk result not divisible by 12 hours rounds up to the next multiple of 12. So a 60-hour datasheet milk period becomes 90 hours, rounded to 96. A 14-day meat period becomes 21.
These are floors. The vet sets the real figure and it can be longer. Some older advice still quotes a flat 28 and 7 days, which is the Northern Ireland position and the old GB one.
Count from the last dose, not the first. For a three-day course the clock starts at the third injection. Red Tractor's records ask for the date treatment finished and the date the animal, or its milk, becomes fit for human consumption.
Keep it on the same line as the product, batch and animal. Our medicine book template has the columns, the medicine book guide covers the other fields, and the five-year retention rule covers how long to keep it.
For a group, the period runs from the last dose to the last animal, and the group carries one end date. Routine group treatments can be recorded against the group, as the Red Tractor medicine records guide explains. An animal pulled out for a specific problem needs its own line.
Red Tractor requires treated livestock to be identifiable throughout the withdrawal period, and an animal still in a statutory period sold farm to farm must carry a withdrawal period declaration. The dairy standard says the same. In practice that is a spray mark, a tag colour or a pen sign, plus a note on the sheet.
Buying in is where it goes wrong. In the VMD's 2025 results, one investigation traced a positive calf to its farm of origin, where a treatment had not been recorded on the Food Chain Information. If you buy in, ask for the treatment history in writing. If you sell, send it.
No. It is a minimum, not an opening bid. If a lorry is booked or the tank is full, ring the vet first, because there may be another product or another date. Do not make the call yourself.
For milk the stakes are written into the scheme. Under Red Tractor dairy, two antibiotic fails in a 12-month rolling period mean the BCVA or Dairy UK investigation report form must be completed. A residue result over the limit also prompts a VMD follow-up on the farm.
If you think something has gone early, tell your vet and your buyer the same day. Explaining a mistake you caught beats having it found in a sample. This is not legal advice, so take specifics to your vet or adviser. Most slips I would expect are small: a missing end date, the wrong product's figure, a movement the other end never heard about.
The assessor works from your medicine records. The beef and lamb standard lists the withdrawal period, the date treatment finished and the date the animal becomes fit for human consumption among administration fields, alongside batch, number treated, who gave it and the reason. The Red Tractor audit checklist shows where this sits.
Your vet's annual review reads the same records, so a properly worked health plan and annual vet review will usually catch a missing end date before an assessor does.
FarmHQ, in pre-launch beta, drafts the entry from a photo of the label or vet invoice and you confirm it. It does not replace your vet's figure. See how Joe drafts and you confirm.
It depends on the product and species; read it from the label, datasheet or your vet's prescription. For a cascade prescription in Great Britain the legal minimum is 28 days for meat and 7 days for milk where the product has no food-animal or milk authorisation, otherwise 1.5 times the longest authorised period.
At the last dose, not the first. For a course of injections, count from the final one. Red Tractor records ask for the date treatment finished and the date the animal or milk becomes fit for human consumption. If the datasheet is unclear, take the later date and ask your vet.
Yes. The group carries one end date, counted from the last dose given to the last animal. Routine group treatments such as vaccines can be recorded against the group, but animals treated individually for a specific problem need their own record.
Both. Regulation 19 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 requires the keeper to record the withdrawal period when administering a medicine. Red Tractor adds the date treatment finished, the date the animal becomes fit for human consumption and who gave the medicine.
Not for the food chain. Under Red Tractor, an animal still in a statutory withdrawal period sold to another farm must carry a withdrawal period declaration and stay identifiable. Check with your vet before moving any treated animal and always pass on the full treatment history.