The Food (Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (England and Wales) Order 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order, which applies to England and Wales, revokes, and re-enacts with certain changes, the Food (Animals and Animal Products from Belgium) (Emergency Control) (England and Wales) (No. 3) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/2798 “the revoked Order”) and implements in England and Wales, in relation to food, Commission Decision 1999/788/EC on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of porcine and poultry origin intended for human or animal consumption (OJ No. L310, 4.12.1999, p.62).

This Order defines ‘relevant animal product’ (article 1(2)), prohibits (with exceptions (article 2)) the carrying out of commercial operations relating to them (article 3), specifies the enforcement authorities (article 4) and applies with modifications provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 (article 5).

In addition to making minor changes to the revoked Order, this Order, by referring to Decision 1999/788/EC, makes the following changes of substance—

(a) it narrows the coverage of the revoked Order in that it does not apply to pigs and poultry and hatching eggs, but only to products derived from pigs and poultry;

(b) the controls in it do not apply in the case of products derived from poultry or pigs slaughtered after 20 September 1999 or from eggs laid after that date;

(c) it reflects changes (consequential on the changes referred to in (a) and (b) above) to the certification requirements for the importation from Belgium of animal products controlled by the revoked Order; and

(d) it reflects the alteration of the requirements as regards the return of products to Belgium, in accordance with procedures set out in Article 4 of Decision 1999/788/EC, namely that—

(i) it is no longer a precondition of return that it should be preceded by an unfulfilled request to the Belgian Authorities to provide a certificate as to analysis of the products to be returned, and

(ii) it is now only products derived from animals slaughtered before 20 September 1999, or from eggs laid before that date, which can lawfully be returned.