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Citation, commencement and application

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Condensed Milk and Dried Milk (England) Regulations 2015 and come into force on 6th April 2015.

(2) These Regulations apply to England only.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“designated product” means any product specified in the second column of the table in Schedule 1 (as read with the Notes to that Schedule) ready for delivery to a final consumer or to a mass caterer;

“partly dehydrated milk” means the liquid product, whether or not sweetened, obtained by the partial removal of water from milk, wholly or partly skimmed milk or a mixture of those products and includes such a product to which cream or totally dehydrated milk (or both) has been added, provided that the addition of totally dehydrated milk does not exceed, in the finished product, 25% of total milk solids;

“reserved description”, as respects any designated product, means any description specified in relation to that product in the first column of the table in Schedule 1 or any alternative description permitted by Schedule 2;

“sell” includes offer or expose for sale or have in possession for sale;

“totally dehydrated milk” means the solid product, where the water content does not exceed 5% by weight of the finished product, obtained by the removal of water from milk, wholly or partly skimmed milk, cream or a mixture of those products.

“total milk solids” means all the constituents of milk other than water, including milk fat, the constituents other than milk fat being present in their natural proportions;

(2) In this regulation, “final consumer” means any person who buys otherwise than for—

(a)resale;

(b)a mass caterer; or

(c)a manufacturing business.

(3) In this regulation, “mass caterer” means a restaurant, canteen, club, public house, school, hospital or similar establishment (including a vehicle or a fixed or mobile stall) where, in the course of a business, food is prepared for delivery to the final consumer and is ready for consumption without further preparation and, for the purposes of this definition, “preparation” includes manufacture and any form of processing or treatment.

(4) In these Regulations, references to the following European instruments and Annex are references to those instruments and that Annex as amended from time to time—

(a)Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives(1);

(b)Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to foods(2);

(c)First Commission Directive 79/1067/EEC laying down Community methods of analysis for testing certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption(3);

(d)the Annex to First Commission Directive 87/524/EEC laying down Community methods of sampling for chemical analysis for the monitoring of preserved milk products(4).

Reserved descriptions

3.  No person may sell any food with a label, whether or not attached to or printed on the wrapper or container, which bears, comprises or includes any reserved description, derivative of a reserved description or substantially similar word or description unless—

(a)such food is the designated product to which the reserved description relates;

(b)such description, derivative or word is used in such a context as to indicate explicitly or by clear implication that the substance to which it relates is only an ingredient of that food; or

(c)such description, derivative or word is used in such a context as to indicate explicitly or by clear implication that such food is not and does not contain a designated product.

Labelling and description

4.  No person may sell any designated product unless it is marked or labelled with the following particulars—

(a)its reserved description,

(b)except in the case of the products specified in paragraphs 1(d) and (g) and 2(d) in the table in Schedule 1, the percentage of milk fat, expressed by weight in relation to the finished product,

(c)in the case of the products specified in paragraph 1 in the table in Schedule 1, the percentage of fat-free dried milk extract, and

(d)in the case of the products specified in paragraph 2 in the table in Schedule 1—

(i)the recommendations as to the method of dilution or reconstitution and the details of the fat content of the product when diluted or reconstituted, and

(ii)a statement that the product is “not intended as a food for infants under 12 months”.

Manner of marking or labelling

5.—(1) The particulars with which a designated product is required to be marked or labelled by virtue of regulation 4(b) or (c) (or both) must appear near the trade name of the product.

(2) Where designated products weighing less than 20 grams per unit are packed in an outer packaging, the particulars required by regulation 4(b) to (d) may appear on the label or the outer packaging.

Application of provisions of the Act

6.—(1) Section 10(1) and (2) of the Act (improvement notices) applies with the modification (in the case of section 10(1)) specified in Part 1 of Schedule 3 for the purposes of—

(a)enabling an improvement notice to be served on a person requiring the person to comply with regulation 3, 4 or 5; and

(b)making the failure to comply with a notice referred to in sub-paragraph (a) an offence.

(2) Section 37(1) and (6) of the Act (appeals) applies with the modifications specified in Part 2 of Schedule 3 for the purpose of enabling a decision to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (1)(a) to be appealed.

(3) Section 39 of the Act (appeals against improvement notices) applies with the modifications (in the case of section 39(1) and (3)) specified in Part 3 of Schedule 3 for the purpose of dealing with appeals against a decision to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (1)(a).

(4) The provisions of the Act specified in the first column of the table in Part 4 of Schedule 3 apply with the modifications specified in the second column of that table for the purposes of these Regulations.

(5) Paragraphs (1) to (3) apply without prejudice to the application of sections 10, 37 and 39 of the Act to these Regulations for purposes other than those specified in those paragraphs.

Enforcement

7.—(1) Each food authority must enforce these Regulations in its area.

(2) In paragraph (1), “food authority” has the meaning given by section 5 of the Act, except that it does not include—

(a)the council of a district in a non-metropolitan county except where the county functions have been transferred to that council pursuant to a structural change; or

(b)the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c) (which relates to the Inner Temple and Middle Temple).

Revocations

8.  The following Regulations are revoked—

(a)the Condensed Milk and Dried Milk (England) Regulations 2003(5);

(b)the Condensed Milk and Dried Milk (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008(6).

Review

9.—(1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

(a)carry out a review of these Regulations;

(b)set out the conclusions of the review in a report; and

(c)publish the report.

(2) In carrying out the review the Secretary of State must, so far as is reasonable, have regard to how Council Directive 2001/114/EC relating to certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption(7) (which is implemented by means of these Regulations) is implemented in other member States.

(3) The report must in particular—

(a)set out the objectives intended to be achieved by these Regulations;

(b)assess the extent to which the objectives are achieved; and

(c)assess whether the objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved in a less burdensome way.

(4) The first report under this regulation must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which these Regulations come into force.

(5) Reports under this regulation are afterwards to be published at intervals not exceeding five years.

George Eustice

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

10th March 2015