Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 lays down the general rules for food business operators on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Food business operators carrying out any stage of production, processing and distribution of food after the primary production stage are to comply with the general hygiene requirements laid down in Annex II to that Regulation.

With regard to water supply, Chapter VII of that Annex provides that potable water is to be used, whenever necessary, to ensure that foodstuffs are not contaminated and that clean water may be used with whole fishery products. It also provides that clean seawater may be used with live bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates and marine gastropods and that clean water may be used for their external washing.

The use of clean water with whole fishery products and for external washing of live bivalve molluscs, echinoderm, tunicates and marine gastropods does not represent a risk for public health as long as control procedures based, in particular, on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles have been developed and put in place by food business operators to ensure that it is not a source of contamination.

Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,