Processed Cereal-based Foods and Baby Foods for Infants and Young Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations provide for the continued implementation of Commission Directive 96/5/EC on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children, as amended by Commission Directives 1998/36/EC, 1999/39/EC and 2003/13/EC. These Regulations, which revoke and replace the Processed Cereal-based Foods and Baby Foods for Infants and Young Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, as amended –

(a) exempt from their application any baby food which is a milk intended for young children (regulation 3);

(b) prohibit the sale of processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children unless they comply with the manufacturing and compositional requirements in regulations 5 to 7 and the labelling requirements in regulation 8 (regulation 4);

(c) specify the enforcement authority (regulation 9);

(d) create an offence and prescribe a penalty; the offence provision now relates only to a contravention of the restrictions on sale in regulation 4 (regulation 10);

(e) provide a defence in relation to exports in accordance with Articles 2 and 3 of Council Directive 89/397/EEC (O.J. No. L186, 30.6.89, p. 23) on the official control of foodstuffs (regulation 11);

(f) apply certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 12); and

(g) contain a revocation provision (regulation 13).

In implementation of Directive 2003/13/EC these Regulations prohibit the sale of processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children if those foods contain pesticide residues above certain levels. Different levels are set depending on the pesticide in question (regulation 7 and Schedules 6 and 7). In implementation of the final sentence of Article 6(2) of Directive 96/5/EC as substituted by Directive 1999/39/EC, provision is made as to analytical methods (regulation 7(5)).