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

Cooked crustacean and molluscan shellfish

7.  Crustaceans and molluscan shellfish must be cooked as follows—

(a) any cooking must be followed by rapid cooling. Water used for this purpose must be potable water or clean seawater. If no other method of preservation is used, cooling must continue until the temperature approaching that of melting ice is reached;

(b) shelling or shucking must be carried out under hygienic conditions avoiding the contamination of the product. Where such operations are done by hand, workers must pay particular attention to the washing of their hands and all working surfaces must be cleaned thoroughly. If machines are used, they must be cleaned at frequent intervals and disinfected after each working day. After shelling or shucking, cooked products must immediately be frozen or kept chilled at a temperature which will preclude the growth of pathogens, and be stored in appropriate premises;

(c) every manufacturer must carry out microbiological checks at regular intervals, complying with 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, but for the purposes of that Commission Decision—

(i) 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

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