Food Safety Act 1990

18 Special provisions for particular foods etc

(1) The Ministers may by regulations make provision—

(a) for prohibiting the carrying out of commercial operations with respect to novel foods, or food sources from which such foods are intended to be derived, of any class specified in the regulations;

(b) for prohibiting the carrying out of such operations with respect to genetically modified food sources, or foods derived from such food sources, of any class so specified; or

(c) for prohibiting the importation of any food of a class so specified,

and (in each case) for excluding from the prohibition any food or food source which is of a description specified by or under the regulations and, in the case of a prohibition on importation, is imported at an authorised place of entry.

(2) The Ministers may also by regulations—

(a) prescribe, in relation to milk of any description, such a designation (in this subsection referred to as a “special designation”) as the Ministers consider appropriate;

(b) provide for the issue by enforcement authorities of licences to producers and sellers of milk authorising the use of a special designation; and

(c) prohibit, without the use of a special designation, all sales of milk for human consumption, other than sales made with the Minister’s consent.

(3) In this section—

• “authorised place of entry” means any port, aerodrome or other place of entry authorised by or under the regulations and, in relation to food in a particular consignment, includes any place of entry so authorised for the importation of that consignment;

• “description”, in relation to food, includes any description of its origin or of the manner in which it is packed;

• “novel food” means any food which has not previously been used for human consumption in Great Britain, or has been so used only to a very limited extent.

(4) For the purposes of this section a food source is genetically modified if any of the genes or other genetic material in the food source—

(a) has been modified by means of an artificial technique; or

(b) is inherited or otherwise derived, through any number of replications, from genetic material which was so modified;

and in this subsection “artificial technique” does not include any technique which involves no more than, or no more than the assistance of, naturally occurring processes of reproduction (including selective breeding techniques or in vitro fertilisation).