The General Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

2004 No. 505

FOOD

The General Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004

Made

9th December 2004

Coming into operation

1st January 2005

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety(1) in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 15(1), 16(2), 25(1) and (3), 26(3) and 47(2) of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991(2) and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, having had regard in accordance with Article 47(3A) of the said Order to relevant advice given by the Food Standards Agency and, being a Department designated(3) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(4) in relation to measures relating to food (including drink) including the primary production of food, in exercise (as respects regulations 8 to 17 of the following Regulations) of the powers conferred on it by the said section 2(2), after consultation as required by Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council(5) laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the General Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004, and come into operation on 1st January 2005.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations –

“the Agency” means the Food Standards Agency;

“the Order” means the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991;

“Regulation 178/2002” means Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.

(2) Expressions used both in these Regulations and in Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 have the same meaning in these Regulations as they have in that Regulation.

(3) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(6) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Competent authorities for the purposes of Regulation 178/2002

3.—(1) The following bodies are designated as the competent authorities for the purposes of the provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 specified in paragraph (2) –

(a) the Agency,

(b) each district council in its district.

(2) Those provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 referred to in paragraph (1) are –

(a) Article 14(8) (power of competent authorities to take appropriate measures to impose restrictions on the placing of food on the market or to require its withdrawal from the market in certain circumstances);

(b) Article 18(2) and (3) (competent authorities to whom food business operators must make information available on demand as to the traceability of food);

(c) Article 19 (food business operators to inform and collaborate with competent authorities to avoid or reduce risks posed by a food).

Requirements under Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002: offences

4.  Any person who contravenes any of the following provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 shall be guilty of an offence –

(a) Article 14(1) (food safety requirements);

(b) Article 16 (presentation) in so far as it relates to food;

(c) Article 18(2) or (3) (traceability) in so far as it relates to food business operators;

(d) Article 19 (responsibilities for food: food business operators).

Punishment of offences

5.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under regulation 4 shall be liable –

(a) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both;

(b) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the relevant amount or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

(2) In paragraph (1) “the relevant amount” means –

(a) in the case of an offence under regulation 4(a), £20,000;

(b) in any other case, the statutory maximum.

Enforcement

6.—(1) Each district council shall enforce and execute these Regulations and the following provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 in its district –

(a) Article 14;

(b) Article 16 in so far as it relates to food;

(c) Article 18 in so far as it relates to food business operators; and

(d) Article 19.

(2) The Agency shall also enforce and execute Articles 14 and 19 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 and these Regulations in so far as they relate to those Articles as regards relevant food.

(3) In paragraph (2) “relevant food” means food in respect of which the Agency is specified in regulations made pursuant to Article 26(3) of the Order or made under the European Communities Act 1972 as being the enforcement authority.

Application of various provisions of the Order

7.—(1) The following provisions of the Order shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations with the modification that any reference in those provisions to the Order or Part thereof shall be construed as a reference to these Regulations –

(a) Article 19 (offences due to fault of another person);

(b) Article 20 (defence of due diligence) with the modifications that paragraphs (2) to (4) shall apply in relation to an offence under regulation 4(a) or (b) as they apply in relation to an offence under Article 13 or 14, and in paragraph (4) the references to “sale” shall be deemed to include references to “placing on the market”;

(c) Article 21 (defence of publication in the course of a business) with the modification that the words “for sale” shall be omitted;

(d) Article 30(8) (which relates to documentary evidence);

(e) Article 36(1) (punishment of offences) in so far as it relates to offences under Article 34(1) as applied by paragraph (3);

(f) Article 36(2) and (3) in so far as it relates to offences under Article 34(2) as applied by paragraph (3).

(2) In the application of Article 33 of the Order (powers of entry) for the purposes of these Regulations, the references in sub-paragraph (1)(a) to the Order shall be construed as including references to Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002.

(3) The following provisions of the Order shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations with the modification that any reference in those provisions to the Order shall be construed as including a reference to Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 and these Regulations –

(a) Article 4 (presumptions that food is intended for human consumption), with the modifications that the references to “sold” and “sale” shall be deemed to include references to “placed on the market” and “placing on the market” respectively;

(b) Article 34(1) (obstruction etc. of officers);

(c) Article 34(2), with the modification that the reference to “any such requirement as is mentioned in paragraph (1)(b)” shall be deemed to be a reference to any such requirement as is mentioned in Article 34(1)(b) as applied by sub-paragraph (b).

(4) Article 35 of the Order (time limit for prosecutions) shall apply to offences under regulation 4 as it applies to offences punishable under Article 36(2) of the Order.

Amendment of the Order

8.  The Order shall be amended in accordance with regulations 9 to 16.

9.  In Article 5 (interpretation) –

(a) paragraphs (1) and (3) shall be omitted;

(b) for paragraph (2) there shall be substituted –

“(2) For the purposes of this Part food fails to comply with food safety requirements if it is unsafe within the meaning of Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 and references to food safety requirements or to food complying with such requirements shall be construed accordingly.

(3) In determining for the purposes of paragraph (2) and Article 6 whether any food is injurious to health, regard shall be had to the matters specified in sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) of Article 14(4) of Regulation 178/2002.”.

10.  Article 6 (rendering food injurious to health) shall be renumbered as paragraph (1) of that Article and after paragraph (1) there shall be inserted the following paragraph –

“(2) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether any food is injurious to health regard shall be had to the matters specified in sub-paragraph (a) to (c) of Article 14(4) of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002.”.

11.  Article 7 (selling food not complying with food safety requirements) shall be omitted.

12.—(1) In Article 8 (inspection and seizure of suspected food) in paragraph (1) –

(a) after sub-paragraph (a) the word “or” shall be omitted; and

(b) after sub-paragraph (b) the following paragraph shall be inserted –

“or

(c) is otherwise placed on the market for the purposes of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002.”.

(2) In paragraph (5) there shall be substituted for the words “or 7” the words “or regulation 4(a) of the General Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004”.

13.  In Article 10 (prohibition orders) there shall be inserted after paragraph (2) –

“(2A) In paragraph (2) and in Articles 11(4) and 12(1) “injury” includes any impairment, whether permanent or temporary.”.

14.  In Article 20(2) (defence of due diligence) there shall be substituted for the words “Article 7, 13 or 14” the words “Article 13 or 14”.

15.  In Article 36(3) (a) (punishment of offences) there shall be substituted for the words “Article 6, 7 or 13” the words “Article 6 or 13”.

16.  In Article 2 (interpretation) –

(a) in paragraph (2) in the appropriate place in alphabetical order there shall be inserted –

““Regulation 178/2002” means Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety”;

(b) in paragraph (7) there shall be substituted for the entry for “food safety requirements and related expressions” the following entry –

• “food safety requirements Article 5”; and

(c) in paragraph (7) the entry for “injury to health and injurious to health” shall be omitted.

Consequential amendment of Regulations

17.—(1) This regulation applies to any provision of any Regulations by virtue of which immediately before the coming into operation of these Regulations Article 7(2) of the Order applies where any requirements of those Regulations or any requirements referred to in those Regulations are contravened in respect of any food.

(2) Any provision to which paragraph (1) applies shall be construed as providing that where any requirements of those Regulations or referred to in those Regulations are contravened in respect of any food and that food is part of a batch, lot or consignment of food of the same class or description, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that all of the food in that batch, lot or consignment fails to comply with those requirements.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 9th December 2004.

L.S.

Leslie Frew

A senior officer of the

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

1.  These Regulations provide for the enforcement of certain provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L31, 1.2.2002, p. 1) laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.

2.  The provisions concerned are as follows –

(a) Article 14 which prohibits the placing of unsafe food on the market;

(b) Article 16 in so far as it prohibits the labelling, advertising or presentation of food from misleading consumers;

(a) Article 18 on traceability in so far as it imposes obligations on food business operators;

(b) Article 19 which imposes obligations on food business operators to act where food is not in compliance with food safety requirements.

In the EC Regulation, “food”, “food business operator” and associated expressions are defined in Articles 2 and 3.

3.  These Regulations –

(a) designate district councils and the Food Standards Agency as the competent authorities for the purposes of certain provisions of those Articles of the EC Regulation (regulation 3) and also make provision as to enforcement authorities (regulation 6);

(b) make provision for offences (regulation 4) and penalties (regulation 5);

(c) apply certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 7);

(d) make some consequential amendments to the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulations 8 to 16) and to regulations referring to Article 7(2) of that Order (regulation 17).

(1)

Formerly the Department of Health and Social Services; see S.I.1999/283 (N.I. 1), Article 3

(2)

S.I. 1991/762 (N.I. 7) as amended by S.I. 1996 /1633 (N.I. 12) and paragraphs 26 to 42 of Schedule 5 and Schedule 6 to the Food Standards Act 1999 c. 28, paragraph 2 of Article 2 (regarding the definition of “food”) was substitued by S.R. 2004 No. 482

(3)

S.I. 2003/2901

(4)

1972 c. 68

(5)

O.J. No. L31, 1.2.2002, p. 1. That Regulation was last amended by Regulation (EC) No. 1642/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L245, 29.9.2003, p. 4)

(6)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)