Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations make miscellaneous amendments to the Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993, the Food Safety (Fishery Products on Fishing Vessels) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993, the Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 and the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. The majority of the amendments implement Commission Decisions concerning the import conditions for fishery products and live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish from specified countries outside the European Economic Area. It is an offence to import a product unless the requirements of those Decisions are complied with.

Regulation 2 and Schedule 1 amend section C of Part II of Schedule 1 to the Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 (chemical checks) to add Commission Decision 95/149/EC relating to the limits of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) in certain categories of fishery products and specifying the analysis methods to be used. It also makes provision in relation to the limits of histamine in certain fish species.

Regulation 3 amends the definition of “fishery products” in the Food Safety (Fishery Products on Fishing Vessels) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993.

Regulation 4 and Schedule 2 amend the Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 to update the list of Commission Decisions which impose conditions on the import of live bivalve molluscs and other shellfish from outside the European Economic Area.

Regulation 5 and Schedule 3 amend the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. The substantive amendments clarify which are the relevant provisions of Council Decision 93/383/EEC, substitute Commission Decision 95/328/EC for Commission Decision 93/185/EEC with reference to the specimen health certificate on which health certificates must be modelled where no approved import conditions for fishery products have been agreed, and update the list of Commission Decisions which impose conditions on the import of fishery products from outside the European Economic Area.

Regulation 6 and Schedule 4 revoke the Imported Food and Feedingstuffs (Safeguards against Cholera) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 together with a provision from the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Import Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995. Those Regulations implemented Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3185/91 (O.J. No. L303, 1.11.91, p. 1) and related Commission Decisions prohibiting the import of food and feedingstuffs from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. Those Commission Decisions have been superseded and Council Regulation 3185/91 lapsed through effluxion of time. They also revoke the Imported Food (Bivalve Molluscs and Marine Gastropods from Japan) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 prohibiting the import of bivalve molluscs and marine gastropods from Japan and an amendment to those Regulations in the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Imported Conditions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995.