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

Section I— Conditions for fresh products

1.  Where chilled, unpackaged products are not dispatched, prepared or processed immediately after reaching the establishment, they must be stored or displayed under ice in the establishment’s cold room. Re-icing must be carried out as often as is necessary; the ice used, with or without salt, must be made from potable water or clean seawater and be stored under hygienic conditions in receptacles provided for the purpose; such receptacles must be kept clean and in a good state of repair. Prepacked fresh products must be chilled with ice or mechanical refrigeration plant creating similar temperature conditions.

2.  If they are not carried out on board, operations such as heading and gutting must be carried out hygienically. The products must be washed thoroughly with potable water or clean seawater immediately after such operations.

3.  Operations such as filleting and slicing must be carried out in such a way as to avoid contamination or spoilage of fillets and slices, and in a place other than that used for heading and gutting operations. Fillets and slices must not remain on work tables any longer than is necessary for their preparation and must be protected from contamination by appropriate packaging. Fillets and slices to be sold fresh must be chilled as quickly as possible after preparation.

4.  Guts and parts that may constitute a danger to public health must be separated from and removed from the vicinity of products intended for human consumption.

5.  Containers used for the dispatch or storage of fresh fishery products must be designed in such a way as to ensure both their protection from contamination and their preservation under sufficiently hygienic conditions and, more particularly, they must provide adequate drainage of melt water.

6.  Unless special facilities are provided for the continuous disposal of waste, the latter must be placed in leakproof, covered containers which are easy to clean and disinfect. Waste must not be allowed to accumulate in working areas. It must be removed either continuously or as soon as the containers are full and at least at the end of each working day in the containers or to the premises referred to in paragraph 6 of Section I of Chapter III. The containers, receptacles and/or premises set aside for waste must always be thoroughly cleaned and, if appropriate, disinfected after use. Waste stored there must not constitute a source of contamination for the establishment or of pollution of its surroundings.