The Meat Products (Hygiene) Regulations 1994

PART IX SPECIAL CONDITIONS FOR MEAT-BASED PREPARED MEALS

In addition to the general conditions in Schedule 1 and in Parts I, II and III of this Schedule—

1.  meat products premises manufacturing prepared meals shall have a separate room for the preparation and wrapping of prepared meals or, if there is no risk of contamination, a separate area; a separate room is not required where meat products and meat are handled at separate times, provided the rooms used for these operations are cleaned and disinfected between use for each type of product;

2.—(a) the meat product contained in the prepared meal shall, as soon as it has been cooked:

(i) either be immediately mixed with the other ingredients; in that event the time during which the temperature of the meat product is between 10°C and 63°C shall be kept to a minimum;

(ii) or be refrigerated to 10°C or less before being mixed with the other ingredients;

(b) the meat product and the prepared meal shall be refrigerated to an internal temperature of +10°C or less within a period of not more than two hours after the end of cooking and to the storage temperature as soon as possible. Meat products premises need not comply with the two-hour period where a longer period is justified for reasons connected with the production technology employed, provided that the safety of the end product is guaranteed and it is acceptable to the enforcement authority;

(c) the prepared meal shall, where appropriate, be frozen or quick-frozen immediately after cooling;

3.  the results of the various checks to be carried out by the operator or manager shall be kept, so that they can be shown on receipt of any request from the enforcement authority, for a minimum period according to the durability of the product concerned.