The Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (England and Wales) (No. 4) Regulations 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply to England and Wales, revoke, and re-enact with certain changes, the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (England and Wales) (No. 3) Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/2799 “the revoked Regulations”) and implement in England and Wales, in relation to products for animal feeding, Commission Decision 1999/788/EC on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of porcine and poultry origin intended for human or animal consumption (OJ No. L310, 4.12.1999, p. 62).

Like the revoked Regulations, these Regulations define “controlled entity” (regulation 1(2)), prohibit (subject to exceptions (regulation 2)) the carrying out of specified operations in relation to them (regulation 3), specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 4) and apply with modifications provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (regulation 5).

In addition to making minor changes to the revoked Regulations, these Regulations, by referring to Decision 1999/788/EC, make the following changes of substance—

(a) they narrow the coverage of the revoked Regulations in that they do not apply to pigs and poultry and hatching eggs, but only to products derived from pigs and poultry;

(b) the controls in them do not apply in the case of products derived from poultry or pigs slaughtered after 20th September 1999 or from eggs laid after that date;

(c) they reflect changes (consequential on the changes referred to in (a) and (b) above) to the certification requirements for the importation from Belgium of animal products controlled by the revoked Regulations; and

(d) they reflect the alteration of the requirements as regards the return of products to Belgium, in accordance with procedures set out in Article 4 of Decision 1999/788/EC, namely that—

(i) it is no longer a precondition of return that it should be preceded by an unfulfilled request to the Belgian Authorities to provide a certificate as to analysis of the products to be returned, and

(ii) it is now only products derived from animals slaughtered before 20th September 1999, or from eggs laid before that date, which can lawfully be returned.