Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Chapter III Conditions for Relaying Live Bivalve Molluscs

The following conditions must be met—

1.  live bivalve molluscs must be gathered and transported, under the supervision of the district council, in accordance with the requirements of Chapter II;

2.  techniques for handling live bivalve molluscs intended for relaying must permit the resumption of filter-feeding activity after immersion in natural waters;

3.  live bivalve molluscs must not be relaid at a density which does not permit purification;

4.  live bivalve molluscs must be immersed in sea water at the relaying area for an appropriate period which must exceed the time taken for levels of faecal bacteria to become reduced to the levels permitted by these Regulations and in particular either the standards specified in Chapter V or the standards in Part 2 of Chapter I where relaying is to be followed by purification;

5.  the minimum water temperature for effective relaying must, where necessary, be determined for each species of live bivalve molluscs and each approved relaying area, by the Department and the district council for the district where the laying is situated, acting jointly, and be announced by the district council;

6.  the boundaries of the sites must be physically delineated by buoys, poles or any other fixed means; there must be a minimum distance of 300 meters between relaying areas, and also between relaying areas and production areas;

7.  sites within a relaying area must be well separated to prevent mixing of batches; the ‘all in, all out’ system must be used, so that a new batch cannot be brought in before the whole of the previous batch has been removed;

8.  permanent records of the source of live bivalve molluscs, relaying periods, relaying areas and subsequent destination of the batch after relaying must be kept by the operators of relaying areas for inspection by the district council;

9.  after harvesting from the relaying area, batches must, during transport from the relaying area to the approved dispatch centre, purification centre or processing plant, be accompanied by the movement document referred to in paragraph 6 of Chapter II, unless a permanent transport authorisation has been issued by a district council.