Bread and Flour Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations revoke and replace the Bread and Flour Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996.

The Regulations—

(a) provide for exemptions from the Regulations (regulation 3);

(b) require that wheat flour (subject to certain exceptions) be fortified with specified essential ingredients (regulation 4, Schedules 1 and 2);

(c) restrict the use of specified ingredients in the preparation of flour and bread and require that an indication of the presence of a flour treatment agent be given in the case both of prepacked and of non-prepacked bread (regulation 5, Schedule 3);

(d) reserve the names “wholemeal” and “wheat germ” for bread which complies with specified compositional requirements and prohibit the sale or advertising for sale using these names of bread which does not comply with the compositional requirements (regulation 6);

(e) create offences and prescribe penalties (regulation 7);

(f) specify the enforcement authority (regulation 8);

(g) provide a defence in relation to exports in implementation of Article 2 and 3 of, as read with the ninth recital to, Council Directive No. 89/397/EEC (O.J. No. L186, 30.6.89, p. 23) on the official control of foodstuffs (regulation 9);

(h) apply various provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 10);

(i) amend and revoke specified Regulations (regulations 11 and 12).

The British Pharmacopoeia 1973, 1980 and 1988 and the British Pharmaceutical Codex 1973, referred to in Schedule 1, may be inspected at the Biomedical Library, Belfast City Hospital, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB, tel. [phone].

These Regulations were notified in draft to the European Commission pursuant to Council Directive 83/189/EEC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (O.J. No. L109, 26.4.83, p. 8) as amended by Council Directive 88/182/EEC (O.J. No. L81, 26.3.88, p. 75), Commission Decision 92/400/EEC (O.J. No. L221, 6.8.92, p. 55), European Parliament and Council Directive 94/10/EEC (O.J. No. L100, 19.4.94, p. 30) and Commission Decision 96/139/EC (O.J. No. L32, 10.2.96, p. 31).