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

1.  The minimum requirements for factory vessels are as follows—

(a) a reception area set aside for taking fishery products on board, designed and arranged into pounds or pens that are large enough to allow each successive catch to be separated. The reception area and its movable parts must be easy to clean. It must be designed in such a way as to protect the products from the sun or the elements and from any source of dirt or contamination;

(b) a system for conveying fishery products from the reception area to the work area that conforms with rules of hygiene;

(c) work areas that are large enough for the preparation and processing of fishery products in proper conditions of hygiene. They must be designed and arranged in such a way as to prevent any contamination of the products;

(d) storage areas for the finished products that are large enough and designed so that they are easy to clean. If a waste processing unit operates on board, a separate hold must be designated for the storage of these by-products;

(e) a place for storing packaging materials that is separate from the product preparation and processing areas;

(f) special equipment for pumping waste or fishery products that are unfit for human consumption either directly into the sea or, where circumstances so require, into a watertight tank reserved for that purpose. If waste is stored and processed on board with a view to cleaning, separate areas must be allocated for that purpose;

(g) equipment providing a supply of potable water or pressurised clean seawater. The seawater intake must be situated in a position where it is not possible for the water being taken in to be affected by discharges into the sea of waste water, waste and engine coolant outlets;

(h) a suitable number of changing rooms, wash basins and toilets, the latter not opening directly onto areas where fishery products are prepared, processed or stored. The wash basins must be equipped with appliances for washing and drying hands that comply with hygiene requirements; the wash-basin taps must not be hand operable.