The Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations 1998

CHAPTER I CONDITIONS APPLICABLE TO FACTORY VESSELS

Section I Conditions concerning design and equipment

1.  The minimum requirements for factory vessels are as follows—

(a) a reception area set aside for taking fishery products on board, designed and arranged into pounds or pens that are large enough to allow each successive catch to be separated. The reception area and its movable parts must be easy to clean. It must be designed in such a way as to protect the products from the sun or the elements and from any source of dirt or contamination;

(b) a system for conveying fishery products from the reception area to the work area that conforms with rules of hygiene;

(c) work areas that are large enough for the preparation and processing of fishery products in proper conditions of hygiene. They must be designed and arranged in such a way as to prevent any contamination of the products;

(d) storage areas for the finished products that are large enough and designed so that they are easy to clean. If a waste processing unit operates on board, a separate hold must be designated for the storage of these by-products;

(e) a place for storing packaging materials that is separate from the product preparation and processing areas;

(f) special equipment for pumping waste or fishery products that are unfit for human consumption either directly into the sea or, where circumstances so require, into a watertight tank reserved for that purpose. If waste is stored and processed on board with a view to cleaning, separate areas must be allocated for that purpose;

(g) equipment providing a supply of potable water or pressurised clean seawater. The seawater intake must be situated in a position where it is not possible for the water being taken in to be affected by discharges into the sea of waste water, waste and engine coolant outlets;

(h) a suitable number of changing rooms, wash basins and toilets, the latter not opening directly onto areas where fishery products are prepared, processed or stored. The wash basins must be equipped with appliances for washing and drying the hands that comply with hygiene requirements; the wash-basin taps must not be hand-operable.

2.  Areas used for the preparation and processing or freezing/quick-freezing of fishery products must have—

(a) a non-slip floor that is also easy to clean and disinfect and equipped for easy drainage of water. Structures and fixtures must have limber holes that are large enough not to be obstructed by fish waste and to allow water to drain freely;

(b) walls and ceilings that are easy to clean, particularly where there are pipes, chains or electricity conduits;

(c) the hydraulic circuits must be arranged or protected in such a way as to ensure that it is not possible for any leakage of oil to contaminate fishery products;

(d) adequate ventilation and, where necessary, proper vapour extraction;

(e) adequate lighting;

(f) appliances for cleaning and disinfecting tools, equipment and fittings;

(g) appliances for cleaning and disinfecting the hands with taps that are not hand-operable and with single use towels.

3.  Equipment and tools such as cutting benches, containers, conveyors, gutting or filleting machines etc. must be resistant to seawater corrosion, easy to clean and disinfect and well-maintained.

4.  Factory vessels which freeze fishery products must have—

(a) a refrigeration plant sufficiently powerful to lower the temperature rapidly so as to achieve a core temperature that complies with the specifications of these Regulations;

(b) refrigeration plants sufficiently powerful to keep fishery products in the storage holds at a temperature that complies with the specifications of these Regulations. The storage holds must be equipped with a temperature recording system placed so that it can easily be consulted.

Section II Conditions of hygiene relating to on-board handling and storage of fishery products

1.  A qualified person on board the factory vessel must be responsible for applying good fishery products manufacturing practices. That person shall have the authority to ensure that the provisions of these Regulations are applied and shall make available to inspectors the programme for inspecting and checking critical points as applied on board, a register containing that person’s comments and the temperature recordings that may be required.

2.  The general conditions of hygiene applicable to areas and equipment shall be those laid down in Section IIA of Chapter III.

3.  The general conditions of hygiene applicable to staff shall be those laid down in Section IIB of Chapter III.

4.  Heading, gutting and filleting must be carried out under the conditions of hygiene laid down in paragraphs 2 to 4 of Section I of Chapter IV.

5.  On-board processing of fishery products must be carried out under the conditions of hygiene laid down in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Section II, Section IV and Section V of Chapter IV.

6.  Fishery products must be wrapped and packaged under the conditions of hygiene laid down in Chapter VI.

7.  On-board storage of fishery products must be carried out under the conditions of hygiene laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Chapter VIII.

8.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), any on-board processing (in particular any cooking) of shrimps or molluscs must be undertaken in accordance with such of—

(a) the approved treatments set out in Commission Decision 93/25/EEC approving certain treatments to inhibit the development of pathogenic micro-organisms in bivalve molluscs and marine gastropods; and

(b) the standards and other obligations set out in Commission Decision 93/51/EEC on the microbiological criteria applicable to the production of cooked crustaceans and molluscan shellfish,

as are appropriate in the particular circumstances of the case.

(2) For the purposes of Commission Decision 93/51/EEC—

(a) the reference in article 2 to a processing plant shall be treated as if it were a reference to a factory vessel;

(b) the reference in article 3(1) to the requirements of article 6 of the Council Directive shall be treated as if it were a reference to regulation 28; and

(c) the reference to competent authorities in the first indented paragraph of article 3(2) shall be treated as a reference to the food authority which approved the factory vessel in question.