Imported Food Regulations 1984
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
1984 No. 1918
FOOD
FOOD HYGIENE
The Imported Food Regulations 19847thDecember 1984
10thDecember 1984
1stJuly 1985Remainder1stJanuary 1985
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
PRELIMINARY
1. Title and commencement.
2. Interpretation.
3. Presumption as to food commonly used for human consumption.
4. Enforcement authorities.
5. Deferred examination.
PART II
ALL IMPORTED FOOD
6. Prohibition on importation of unfit food.
7. Examination of imported food.
8. Analysis of samples.
9. Special examination.
10. Consent of officer of Customs and Excise.
11. Powers of officer of Customs and Excise.
PART III
MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS
12. Interpretation and application of Part III.
13. Requirements as to health marks etc for imported meat.
14. Requirements as to health certificates.
15. Lost, damaged or defective health marks and certificates.
16. Disposal of meat imported contrary to the regulations.
17. Powers of a justice of the peace.
18. Prohibition on the importation of meat required to be exported.
PART IV
GENERAL
19. Record to be kept of food destroyed.
20. Offences and penalties.
21. Court may include a justice who has examined the food.
22. Examination outside business hours.
23. Disputes as to compensation.
24. Protection for officers.
25. Application of various provisions of Food Act 1984.
26. Revocations.
SCHEDULES
Schedule 1. Articles of food to which Part III does not apply
Schedule 2. Meat products which are exempt from the requirements of
Regulation 14
Schedule 3. Requirements as to health marks for imported meat
Schedule 4. Requirements as to wrapping, packing and transport of
imported meat
Schedule 5. Meat or poultry meat in respect of which specific recognition
is required
Schedule 6. Health certificate for fresh meat for consignment to a
member state of the EEC.
Schedule 7. Public Health certificate for fresh meat.
Schedule 8. Health certificate for meat products intended for consign-
ment to a member state of the EEC.
Schedule 9. Health certificate for meat products intended for consign-
ment to the United Kingdom.
Schedule 10. Health certificate for fresh poultry meat intended for
consignment to a member state of the EEC.
Schedule 11. Label to be affixed to large packages of poultry meat
intended for a certain destination.
Schedule 12. Revocations.
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Social Services and the Secretary of State for Wales, acting jointly, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 13 and 118 of the Food Act 1984(a) and now vested in them(b), and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf; and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State, being Ministers designated(c) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European
(a) 1984 c. 30.
(b) In the case of the Secretary of State for Social Services by virtue of S.I. 1968/1699, and in the case of the Secretary of State for Wales by virtue of S.I. 1978/272.
(c) S.I. 1972/1811.
Communities Act 1972(a) in relation to the common agricultural policy of the European Economic Community, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by the said section 2(2), and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf; hereby make the following regulations, after consultation in accordance with section 118(6) of the said Act of 1984 with such organisations as appear to them to be representative of interests substantially affected by the regulations (in so far as the regulations are made in exercise of the powers conferred by the said sections 13 and 118):—
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Title and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Imported Food Regulations 1984 and shall come into operation as follows:—
(a) regulations 4(7), (8) and (9) and 5 shall come into operation on 1st July 1985, and
(b) this regulation and the remaining provisions of these regulations shall come into operation on 1st January 1985.
Interpretation
2. In these regulations unless the context otherwise requires—
"the Act" means the Food Act 1984;
"appropriate Minister" means, as respects importation into England, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and as respects importation into Wales, the Secretary of State for Wales;
"authorised officer" means an authorised officer of an enforcing authority, and for the purposes of these regulations has the meaning otherwise assigned to it by Section 73 of the said Act of 1984;
"competent authority" means an authority having power under the laws in force in any country to examine food and to certify as to its fitness for human consumption;
"district" means the district of a local authority, and includes the waters of any customs port abutting on any part of the district so far as such waters are not within a port health district;
"enforcing authority" means the authority responsible for the enforcement and execution of these regulations under regulation 4;
"food" includes drink, chewing gum and other products of a like nature and use, and articles and substances used as ingredients in the preparation of food or drink or of such products, but does not include—
(a) water, live animals or birds,
(b) articles and substances used only as drugs, or
(a) 1972 c. 68; section 2 is subject to Schedule 2 to that Act and is to be read with section 40 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48).
(c) milk, which has the meaning given to it in the Importation of Milk Regulations 1983(a);
"fresh meat" means the flesh or other edible parts of a mammal or bird, which has not been subjected to any treatment or process other than chilling, freezing, vacuum packing or packing in a controlled atmosphere and includes minced chopped or mechanically recovered meat, and meat treated by the addition of seasonings;
"hovercraft" has the meaning assigned to it by section 4(1) of the Hovercraft Act 1968(b);
"importer", in relation to imported food, includes any person who, whether as owner, consignor, consignee, agent or broker, is in possession of the food or in any way entitled to the custody of or control of it;
"master", in relation to a ship, aircraft or hovercraft, includes the officer or any other person for the time being in charge or command of the ship, aircraft or hovercraft;
"officer of Customs and Excise" includes any person acting under the authority of the Commissioners of Customs and Excise.
Presumption as to food commonly used for human consumption
3. For the purposes of these regulations, any food commonly used for human consumption shall, if imported for sale or for use in the preparation of food for sale, be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been imported for sale, or, as the case may be, for use in the preparation of food for sale, for human consumption.
Enforcement authorities
4.— (1) Subject to the provisions of this regulation and to such of the provisions of these regulations as prescribe functions to be exercised by officers of Customs and Excise, the authority responsible for the enforcement of these regulations shall be—
(a) in relation to imported food which is in or unloaded in a port health district and—
(i) which is liable to immediate customs examination, the port health authority; or
(ii) where the customs examination is deferred until the food reaches a place of destination in England and Wales, the local authority in whose district the place of destination lies;
(b) in relation to imported food which is unloaded—
(i) elsewhere than in a port health district, or
(a) S.I. 1983/1563.
(b) 1968 c. 59.
(ii) in Scotland or Northern Ireland,
the local authority in whose district the food is deposited for customs examination.
(2) Where immediately prior to the commencement of these regulations the Imported Food Regulations 1968(a) were enforced and executed by a local authority in any part of a port health district, these regulations shall to the same extent be enforced and executed by that authority or by any other authority to whom the functions of the first named authority have been transferred.
(3) Where imported food is unloaded in the district of a port health authority or of a local authority and—
(a) customs examination of the food has been completed; and
(b) an authorised officer of such authority nevertheless considers it expedient (having regard to the nature of the container in which the food is imported) that—
(i) any examination of the food for purposes of these regulations should be deferred until the food reaches a specified place of destination elsewhere in England or Wales, or
(ii) any examination of the food should take place under Scotland or Northern Ireland regulations when the food reaches a specified place of destination in Scotland or Northern Ireland; and
(c) the importer gives to the port health authority or local authority of the port or airport of entry an undertaking in writing that the container has been sealed and will not be opened until it reaches the place of destination specified in the undertaking,
the authorised officer shall, by the most expeditious means available, notify the receiving authority that the food (so described as to enable it to be identified) has not, by reason of the matters referred to in sub-paragraph (b) hereof, been examined under these regulations at the port or airport of entry and send them a copy of the undertaking referred to in sub-paragraph (c) hereof; and where the receiving authority are a local authority within the meaning of these regulations that authority shall thereupon become responsible for the execution and enforcement of these regulations in relation to that food.
(4) Where under any provision corresponding to the last foregoing paragraph contained in Scotland or Northern Ireland regulations a local authority receive notification that imported food which has not been examined under those regulations has been or is being sent to a place of destination in their district, they shall thereupon become responsible for the execution and enforcement of...
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