8.—(1) If an authorised officer who has procured a sample of any organic product considers that it should be analysed, examined or tested, he shall submit such sample to be analysed, examined or tested, as the case may be, by the public analyst for the area in which it was procured or, if the office of the public analyst for the area is vacant, to the public analyst for some other area.
(2) The public analyst shall analyse, examine or test or have analysed, examined or tested, as soon as practicable, any sample submitted to him in pursuance of this regulation.
(3) A public analyst who has analysed, examined or tested a sample shall give to the person by whom it was submitted a certificate specifying the result of the analysis, examination or test.
(4) Any certificate of the results of an analysis, examination or test given by a public analyst in pursuance of this regulation shall be signed by the public analyst, but the analysis, examination or test may be made by any person acting under the direction of the analyst.
(5) In any proceedings under these Regulations, the production by one of the parties—
(a)of a document purporting to be a certificate under paragraph (3) above, or
(b)of a document supplied to him by the other party as being a copy of such a certificate,
shall be sufficient evidence of the facts stated in it unless, in a case falling within sub-paragraph (a) above, the other party requires that the analyst shall be called as a witness.
(6) In any such proceedings if a person charged intends to produce a certificate of a public analyst, or under paragraph (5) above to require that the analyst shall be called as a witness, notice of his intention, together, in the first-mentioned case, with a copy of the certificate, shall be given to the other party at least three clear days before the hearing or trial, and, if this requirement is not complied with, the court may, if it thinks fit, adjourn the hearing or trial on such terms as it thinks proper.