Inspection and health marking
12.—(1) The Minister shall—
(a)arrange for pre-slaughter health inspections to be carried out, authorise the slaughter of birds or rabbits in accordance with Schedule 7 and, where appropriate, ensure that birds or rabbits are accompanied by the health attestation set out in Schedule 17 or the information contained in Schedule 22; and
(b)arrange for post-mortem health inspections to be carried out in accordance with Schedule 9.
(2) The health mark shall be applied in accordance with Schedule 11 to all fresh meat which has been passed as fit for human consumption following pre-slaughter and post-mortem health inspections and which complies with the requirements of these Regulations.
(3) No person shall apply the health mark—
(a)to any fresh meat which does not satisfy the requirements specified in paragraph (2) above; or
(b)subject to paragraph (8) below, to any uneviscerated poultry; or
(c)to any uneviscerated farmed game birds.
(4) No person shall remove, or cause or permit to be removed, from licensed premises any carcase or part of a carcase or any offal intended for sale for human consumption or any offal from a slaughtered bird or rabbit intended for sale for human consumption until it has been inspected in accordance with these Regulations.
(5) No person shall remove, or cause or permit to be removed, from a licensed premises any body of a bird intended for sale for human consumption—
(a)unless it is accompanied by the health attestation shown in Schedule 20; or
(b)in the case of uneviscerated poultry, until the surface of the body of that bird has been inspected and the bird passed as fit for human consumption.
(6) The health mark shall be applied under the supervision and responsibility of an official veterinary surgeon who may be assisted by an inspector.
(7) No person shall use any mark so resembling a health mark, or in such a way, as to be likely to suggest that the product has been produced in accordance with these Regulations.
(8) Paragraph (3)(b) above shall not apply to partly eviscerated poultry (“effilé”).