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# What you need to know about disposing of Halloween pumpkins
- URL: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/what-you-need-to-know-about-disposing-of-halloween-pumpkins/
- Published: 2024-10-31T09:02:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-16T15:31:35.000Z
- Description: As residents prepare their Halloween decorations, Trading Standards officials have released guidance on the safe and legal disposal of carved pumpkins to protect livestock from disease.
- Author: Oliver Rouane-Williams
- Tags: News, Appeals, #article, Suffolk Trading Standards, #Import 2026-03-16 14:46

**The big picture:** Feeding carved pumpkins to livestock—including pet pigs, sheep, and cattle—is illegal if the pumpkins were carved in a kitchen or with utensils used for meat and dairy products.

**Why it matters:** The ban on feeding kitchen waste to livestock was introduced following the 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak, which was most likely caused by catering waste being fed to pigs.

![An advert from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs asking people not to feed discarded pumpkins to livestock](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/1e/291e4b7f-e551-4458-b546-61963954b22f/content/images/2026/03/1730129978-pumpkin-swine-fever-warning.png)

An advert from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs asking people not to feed discarded pumpkins to livestock (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs)

**Here's what you can do:**

- Feed fruit and vegetables that have never entered a kitchen
- Use specially formulated animal feed for a balanced diet
- Use utensils that have never touched animal products

**Here's what you can't do:**

- Feed any food scraps from restaurants or commercial kitchens
- Use domestic kitchen waste, even from vegetarian or vegan kitchens
- Feed carved pumpkins that have been in household kitchens

**The bottom line:** While Halloween pumpkin carving is a fun tradition, Suffolk Trading Standards warns that improper disposal of carved pumpkins to livestock could contribute to the spread of notifiable animal diseases such as African swine fever.

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