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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
1996 No. 1502
FOOD
The Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996
| Laid before Parliament |
10th June 1996 |
| Coming into force |
1st July 1996 |
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State
for Health and the Secretary of State for 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 on them by sections 6(4),
16(1)(e), 17(1), 26(1)(a) and (3) and 48(1) of the Food Safety Act 1990[1],
and of 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 by the Regulations, hereby make the following Regulations:—
Title and commencement
1. These Regulations may
be cited as the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996 and shall come into
force on 1 July 1996.
Interpretation
2. In these Regulations,
except where the context requires otherwise—
"the Act" means the Food Safety Act 1990;
"edible ice" has the same meaning as in the Food Labelling Regulations;
"first seller established within the Community" has the same meaning
as in Council Directive 89/396/EEC[2];
"food" means food, within the meaning of the Act, intended for sale
for human consumption;
"the Food Labelling Regulations" means the Food Labelling Regulations
1996[3] and "indication of minimum durability",
"use by" date and "ultimate consumer" have the same meanings as in those
Regulations;
"lot" means a batch of sales units of food produced, manufactured or
packaged under similar conditions;
"lot marking indication" means an indication which allows identification
of the lot to which a sales unit of food belongs;
"prepacked" has the same meaning as in the Food Labelling Regulations,
and "pre-packaging" shall be construed accordingly;
"prepacked for immediate sale" has the same meaning as "prepacked for
direct sale" in the Food Labelling Regulations; and
"sell" includes offer or expose for sale and have in possession for
sale, and "sale" and "sold" shall be construed accordingly.
Lot marking requirement
3.—(1) Subject to the exceptions specified
in regulation 4 below, no person shall sell any food which forms part of
a lot unless it is accompanied by a lot marking indication.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation—
(a) a lot shall be determined as a lot to which food in the sales
unit belongs by a producer, manufacturer, packager, or the first seller
established within the Community, of the food in question; and
(b) a lot marking indication—
(i) shall be determined and affixed under the responsibility
of one or other of those operators; and
(ii) shall be preceded by the letter "L", except in cases where
that lot marking indication is clearly distinguishable from the other indications
on the packaging of the food or on a label attached to its packaging.
(3) A lot marking indication—
(a) for prepacked food shall appear on, or on a label attached
to, the packaging of the food; and
(b) for food which is not prepacked shall appear on the container
of the food or on a commercial document which accompanies the food, and
shall in all cases appear in such a way as to be easily visible, clearly
legible and indelible.
Exceptions for particular types of sale and sales units
4. Regulation 3 above shall
not apply to the following—
(a) a sale of an agricultural product which, on leaving the holding
of its production—
(i) is sold or delivered to a temporary storage, preparation
or packaging station, or to a producer's organisation; or
(ii) is collected for immediate integration into an operational
preparation or processing system;
(b) a sale to the ultimate consumer of food where the food is
not prepacked, is packed at the request of the purchaser or is prepacked
for immediate sale;
(c) a sales unit of food which is in a container the area of
the largest side of which is less than 10 square centimetres;
(d) a sales unit of food which is prepacked, sold as an individual
portion for immediate consumption and which is intended as a minor accompaniment
to either another food or another service;
(e) a sales unit of an individual portion of an edible ice supplied
to its seller in bulk packaging containing more than one such portion and
bearing the lot marking indication which that portion would, but for this
paragraph, have been required to bear;
(f) a sale after these Regulations come into force—
(i) of a sales unit marked or labelled before 1 July 1992; or
(ii) of a sales unit before 1 January 1997 in a glass bottle
intended for re-use which is indelibly marked and therefore bears no label,
ring or collar; and
(g) a sales unit of food which is marked or labelled with an
indication of minimum durability or "use by" date which consists at least
of the uncoded indication of the day and month in that order, whether or
not the Food Labelling Regulations require it to be so marked or labelled.
Enforcement
5.—(1) If any person contravenes regulation
3 above he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary
conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
(2) Each food authority shall enforce and execute
these Regulations in its area.
(3) In this regulation "food authority" does
not include—
(a) the council of any district in a non-metropolitan county
in England, except where the county functions have been transferred to
that council in relation to a structural change; or
(b) the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c)
of the Act (which deals with the Inner and Middle Temple).
(4) Where an offence under these Regulations
is committed by a Scottish partnership and is proved to have been committed
with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect
on the part of a partner he, as well as the partnership, shall be guilty
of the offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Application of provisions of the Food Safety Act
6. The following provisions
of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as they apply
for the purpose of the Act and, unless the context otherwise requires,
any reference in them to the Act shall be construed as a reference to these
Regulations—
section 2 (extended meaning of sale);
section 3 (presumption that food is intended for human consumption);
section 20 (offences due to fault of another person);
section 21 (defence of due diligence);
section 33 (obstruction etc. of officers);
section 36 (offences by bodies corporate);
section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith).
Revocation
7. The Food (Lot Marking)
Regulations 1992[4] are hereby revoked.
Angela Browning
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
10th June 1996
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health
John Horam
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health
6th June 1996
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Wales
Jonathan Evans
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Welsh Office
6th June 1996
Lindsay
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office
5th June 1996
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of these Regulations)
These Regulations revoke and replace the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations
1992. They apply to Great Britain and come into force on 1st July 1996.
Like the previous Regulations, these Regulations implement Council Directive
89/396/EEC (OJ No. L186, 30. 06. 89, p. 21) as amended by Council Directives
91/238/EEC (OJ No. L107, 27. 4. 91, p. 50) and 92/11/EEC (OJ No. L65, 11.
3. 92, p. 32).
The new Regulations continue the previous requirements that food which
has been produced, prepared or packaged as part of a lot is marked or labelled
as to enable the lot to be identified. These Regulations have been made
with a view to simplifying the 1992 Regulations.
ISBN 0 11 062671 0
Notes:
[1] 1990 c. 16;
"the Ministers" is defined in section 4(1) of the Act; section 6(4)(a)
of the Act was amended by the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994
(c. 40) section 31 and Schedule 9, paragraph 6. back
[2] OJ No. L186, 30. 06. 89, p. 21, as amended by Council Directives
91/238/EEC (OJ No. L107, 27. 4. 91, p. 50) and 92/11/EEC (OJ No. L65, 11.
3. 92, p. 32). back
[3] SI 1996/1499. back
[4] SI 1992/1357. back |
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