Packers’ and importers’ duties as to equipment, checks and documentation
9.—(1) It shall be the duty of a packer in making up packages either—
(a)to measure the product contained in each package using equipment which complies with paragraph (2) to ensure that the packages are packed in accordance with regulation 4(1), or
(b)to carry out checks on the product contained in the packages using a system of sampling and tests which are sufficiently rigorous to ensure that the packages are packed in accordance with regulation 4(1), and for this purpose—
(i)to use equipment which complies with paragraph (2), and
(ii)to make, and to keep until the relevant date, a record of the checks, together with a record of the corrections and adjustments which they have shown to be necessary.
(2) Equipment complies with this paragraph if it is suitable for the use to which it is put.
(3) It shall be the duty of an importer—
(a)to carry out such a check as is mentioned in paragraph (1)(b) and to comply with sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) of that paragraph in connection with the check; or
(b)to obtain, before the packages leave the importer’s possession, sufficient evidence to give reasonable grounds for believing that the packages have been packed in accordance with regulation 4(1).
(4) The importer shall keep, until the relevant date, the evidence obtained for the purposes of paragraph 3(b).
(5) The relevant date, for the purposes of paragraphs (1)(b)(ii) and (4), is either:
(a)the date, as marked on the package, which indicates by when the product ought to be consumed; or
(b)one year after the packages have left the possession of the packer or importer (as appropriate),
whichever occurs first.