Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations 1992
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1992/3163 |
| Year | 1992 |
1992 No. 3163
FOODFOOD SAFETY
The Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations 1992
Made 11th December 1992
Laid before Parliament 11th December 1992
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretaries of State respectively concerned with health in England and food and health in Wales, acting jointly in relation to England and Wales, and the Secretary of State for Scotland in relation to Scotland, in exercise of the powers conferred upon them by sections 6(4), 16(1), 17(1), 26(3), 48(1) and 49(2) of, and paragraphs 2, 5(1) and (2), 6(1) and 7(1) of Schedule 1 to of the Food Safety Act 1990(1) and all other powers enabling them in that behalf, after consultation in accordance with section 48(4) of that Act with such organisations as appear to them to be representative of interests likely to be substantially affected, hereby make the following Regulations:—
Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Food Safety (Fishery Products) Regulations 1992 and shall come into force—
(a) for the purposes of regulation 9(2) to (8) and 10, and so much of regulation 9(1) as provides conditions for the approval of vessels or establishments, on 1st January 1993;
(b) for all other purposes, on 15th January 1993.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these Regulations unless the context otherwise requires “the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;
“aquaculture products” means—
(a) all fishery products born or raised in controlled conditions until placed on the market as a foodstuff, and
(b) all seawater fish, freshwater fish or crustaceans caught in their natural environ ment when juvenile and kept until they reach the desired commercial size for human consumption, other than fish or crustaceans of commercial size caught in their natural environment and kept alive to be sold at a later date, if they are merely kept alive without any attempt being made to increase their size or weight;
“batch” means a quantity of fishery products obtained under practically identical circum stances;
“chilling” means the process of cooling fishery products to a temperature approaching that of melting ice;
“clean seawater” means seawater or briny water which is free from any microbiological contamination, harmful substances or toxic marine plankton in such quantities as may affect the health quality of fishery products, and which is used under the conditions laid down in these Regulations;
“consignment” means a quantity of fishery products bound for one or more customers in the country of destination and conveyed at any one time by a single means of transport;
“the Council Directive” means Council Directive 91/493/EEC(2) of 22 July 1991 laying down the health conditions for the production and the placing on the market of fishery products;
“derogation” means a derogation under either the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Derogation) Regulations 1992(3) or the Food Safety (Fishery Products on Fishing Vessels) Regulations 1992(4);
“drinking water” means water within the meaning of Council Directive 80/778/EEC(5) (quality of water intended for human consumption);
“establishment” means any premises where fishery products are prepared, processed, chilled, frozen, packaged or stored, including auction or wholesale markets where any such preparation or processing of fishery products takes place but not such auction or wholesale markets where only display and sale by wholesale takes place;
“factory vessel” means any vessel on which fishery products undergo one or more of the following operations followed by packaging, namely, filleting, slicing, skinning, mincing, freezing or processing but does not include a fishing vessel in which only shrimps and molluscs are cooked on board or a fishing vessel on board which only freezing is carried out;
“final consumer” means a person who buys fishery products—
(a) for his own consumption or consumption by his partner, family or other person in a solely domestic context;
(b) for direct transport to, and consumption on, premises either in his ownership or under his personal supervision or in the ownership or under the personal supervision of a person employed by him; or
(c) for cooking on premises either in his ownership or under his personal supervision or in the ownership or under the personal supervision of a person employed by him for sale as take-away food for consumption off those premises;
“fishery products” means all seawater or freshwater animals or parts thereof, including their roes but excluding aquatic mammals, frogs and aquatic animals covered by Community Acts other than the Council Directive;
“the Fishing Vessel Directive” means Council Directive 92/48/EEC(6) of 16th June 1992 laying down minimum hygiene rules applicable to fishery products caught on board certain vessels in accordance with Article 3(1)(a)(i) of the Council Directive;
“food authority” means an authority specified in regulation 19 as an authority which is to enforce and execute these Regulations;
“fresh products” means any fishery products, whether whole or prepared, including products packaged under vacuum or in a modified atmosphere, which have not undergone any treatment to ensure preservation other than chilling;
“frozen products” means fishery products which have undergone a freezing process;
“means of transport” means those parts of road or rail vehicles, aircraft or ships, including containers and trailers used in conjunction with any such transport, constructed or adapted for the transport of goods;
“packaging” means the procedure of protecting fishery products by a wrapper, a container or any other suitable means;
“placing on the market” means, in relation to fishery products for human consumption, the holding for sale, exposing for sale, displaying for sale, offering for sale, selling, consigning, delivering or any other associate~ ~d activity of marketing but not either a sale to a final consumer or a sale by a fisherman of a small quantity within a local market in the circumstances specified in regulation 14;
“prepared product” means any fishery product which has undergone an operation affecting its anatomical wholeness such as gutting, heading, slicing, filleting or chopping;
“preserving” means the process whereby fishery products are packaged in hermetically sealed containers and subjected to heat treatment to the extent that any micro-organisms that might proliferate are destroyed or inactivated, irrespective of the temperature at which the product is to be stored;
“processed product” means any product comprising not less than 10% by weight of fishery product, which has undergone a chemical or physical process, such as the heating, smoking, salting, dehydration or marinating of chilled or frozen products, whether or not associated with other foodstuffs, or a combination of these processes;
“the Commission” means the Commission of the European Communities.
(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
(a)
(a) a reference to a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation in or Schedule to these Regulations which bears that number;
(b)
(b) a reference in a regulation to a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph of that regulation which bears that number;
(c)
(c) a reference to a numbered Schedule is to the Schedule to these Regulations which bears that number.
(3) In the Schedules to these Regulations—
(a)
(a) a reference to the Annex is a reference to the Annex in the Council Directive; and
(b)
(b) a reference to a numbered Chapter is a reference to the Chapter which bears that number in the Annex.
Placing fishery products on the market
3. No person shall place on the market any fishery products caught in their natural environment which do not meet the following requirements—
(a) that they have been caught, and any operations to bleed, head, gut or remove fins, chill or freeze the products have been carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Fishing Vessel Directive;
(b) if they have been handled in a factory vessel, that the vessel, if registered in a member State of the European Community, is approved pursuant to regulation 9, and is operated in accordance with the requirements of Chapter I of the Annex relating to factory vessels, as set out in the Schedule to the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Derogations) Regulations 1992(7);
(c) that during and after landing they have been handled in accordance with the require ments of Chapter II of the Annex relating to landing, as provided for in the Schedule to the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Derogations) Regulations 1992;
(d) that they have been handled and, where appropriate, packaged, prepared, pro cessed, frozen, defrosted or stored hygienically in establishments approved in accordance with regulation 9 and the requirements of Chapter III of the Annex relating to general conditions for establishments on land and special conditions for handling fishery products on shore, as provided for in the Schedule to the Food Safety (Fishery Products) (Derogations) Regulations 1992;
(e) that they shall have been the subject of the health control and monitoring described in Schedule 1 except when the food authority has authorised the transfer of fishery products ex quay into containers for immediate delivery to an approved establish ment or registered auction or wholesale market to be checked there, in which case a check on the conditions of landing is not required;
(f) that they have been appropriately packaged in accordance with Schedule 2;
(g) that they have been given an identification mark in accordance with Schedule 3;
(h) that they have been stored and transported under satisfactory conditions of hygiene in accordance with Schedule 4.
Gutting
4. An operator having control over the timing of the gutting of a fishery product, where such gutting is possible from a...
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