(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations amend the Meat Products (Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (S.R. 1997 No. 494) (“the principal Regulations”) which implement Council Directive 77/99/EEC on health problems affecting the production and marketing of meat products, and certain other products of animal origin, as amended by Council Directive 95/68/EC (O.J. No. L332, 30.12.95, p. 10). The consolidated text of Council Directive 77/99/EEC after amendments made to it by Council Directive 92/5/EEC is contained in O.J. No. L57, 2.3.92, p. 4. These Regulations, among other things, also give effect to Article 1(9) of Council Directive 97/76/EC (O.J. No. L10, 16.1.98, p. 25). The bulk of the Regulations comes into operation on 24th May 1999. Regulation 2(7)(c) will come into operation on 30th September 1999 and regulation 2(7)(e) and (h) on 31st March 2000.
Regulation 2 makes minor technical adjustments to various provisions of the principal Regulations. In particular, the hygiene control requirements imposed on manufacturers using hermetically sealed containers are recast (regulation 7(g)). The temperature requirements applying to the production of meat-based prepared meals are also amended (regulation 7(h)). Article 1(9) of Council Directive 97/76/EC substitutes a new Chapter III for the existing Chapter III of Annex C to the Council Directive 77/99/EEC. The new Chapter III lays down conditions governing the production, placing on the market and import of cleaned, salted or dried and/or heated stomachs, bladders and intestines. That new Chapter is replicated in a revised Part III of Schedule 5 to the principal Regulations, which revision is effected by regulation 2(8) of these Regulations.