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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
1995 No. 3124
FOOD
The Colours in Food Regulations 1995
| Laid before Parliament |
11th December 1995 |
| Coming into force |
1st January 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)(a), 17(1), 26(1) and (3) and 48(1) of, and paragraph 1 of Schedule
1 to, the Food Safety Act 1990[1] and
of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following
Regulations, after consultation in accordance with section 48(4) of the
said Act with such organisations as appear to them to be representative
of interests likely to be substantially affected by the Regulations:
Title and commencement
1. These Regulations may
be cited as the Colours in Food Regulations 1995, and shall come into force
on 1st January 1996.
Interpretation
2. —(1) In these
Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
"the Act" means the Food Safety Act 1990;
the noun "colour" means a food additive which is used or intended to
be used for the primary purpose of adding or restoring colouring in a food,
and includes—
(a) any natural constituent of food and any natural source not
normally consumed as food as such and not normally used as a characteristic
ingredient of food, and
(b) any preparation obtained from food or from any other natural
source material, by, in eilther case—
(ii) chemical extraction, or
(iii) physical and chemical extraction
which results in the selective extraction of the pigment relative to the
nutritive or aromatic constituent,
but does not include—
(aa) any food (including one in dried or concentrated form),
used, in either case, in the manufacture of any compound food because
of its aromatic, sapid or nutritive properties albeit that it may also
be used secondarily to add or restore colouring to such compound food,
and
(cc) any colour when it is used only for colouring any inedible
external part of a food;
"Directive 94/36/EC" means European Parliament and Council Directive
94/36/ EC[2] on colours for use in foodstuffs;
"Directive 95/45/EC" means Commission Directive 95/45/EC[3]
laying down specific criteria of purity concerning colours for use in foodstuffs;
"food" means food sold, or intended for sale, for human consumption,
and in regulation 8 and for the purposes of regulation 11 includes a colour;
"food additive" means any substance not normally consumed as a food
in itself and not normally used as a characteristic ingredient of food,
whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which
to food for a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation,
treatment, packaging, transport or storage of such food results, or may
reasonably be expected to result, in it or its by-products becoming directly
or indirectly a component of such foods;
"infants" means children under the age of twelve months;
"member State" means a member State of the European Community;
"permitted colour" means any colour listed in Schedule 1 which satisfies
the specific purity criteria for that colour set out in the annex to Directive
95/45/EC;
"processed" in relation to any food, means having undergone any treatment
resulting in a substantial change in the original state of the food, but
does not include dividing, parting, severing, boning, mincing, skinning,
paring, peeling, grinding, cutting, cleaning, trimming, deep-freezing,
freezing, chilling, milling, husking, packing or unpacking, and "unprocessed"
shall be construed accordingly;
"sell" includes possess for sell, and offer, expose or advertise for
sale, and "sale" and "sold"shall be construed accordingly;
"young children" means children aged between one and three years,
and other expressions used in these Regulations and in Directive
94/36/EC have, in so far as the context admits, the same meaning as they
bear in that Directive. (2) Any reference in these
Regulations to a Community instrument is a reference to it as amended,
modified or otherwise adapted.
(3) Any reference in these Regulations to a
numbered regulation or Schedule shall, unless the context otherwise requires,
be construed as a reference to the regulation or Schedule bearing that
number in these Regulations, and including in the case of a Schedule any
note thereto.
(4) Any reference in these Regulations or in
a Schedule thereto to—
(a) a maximum level of permitted colour in or on a food is to
the maximum amount, in milligrams, of colouring principle contained in
that permitted colour per kilogram or, as the case may be, per litre of
food which is ready to eat having been prepared according to any instructions
for use;
(b) quantum satis, means that no maximum level of permitted
colour in or on a corresponding food is specified but that in or on such
food a permitted colour may be used in accordance with good manufacturing
practice at a level not higher than is necessary to achieve the intended
purpose and provided that such use does not mislead the consumer.
Use of colours in or on food
3.—(1) No person shall use in or on
any food any colour other than a permitted colour.
(2) No person shall use any permitted colour
in or on any food listed in Schedule 2 except in accordance with paragraph
3(a) below.
(3) Subject to paragraph (4) below and to regulations
4, 5 and 6, no person shall use any permitted colour in or on any food
unless—
(a) the food is one listed—
(i) in Column 1 of Schedule 3, in which case there may be used
in or on such food any permitted colour which is listed in relation to
it in Column 2 of Schedule 3 in an amount not exceeding the maximum level
for such permitted colour in or on such food as listed in Column 3 of Schedule
3; or
(ii) in Column 2 of Schedule 4, in which case there may be used
in or on such food any permitted colour which is listed in relation to
it in Column 1 of Schedule 4 in an amount not exceeding the maximum level
for such permitted colour in or on such food as listed in Column 3 of Schedule
4; or
(iii) in Part III of Schedule 5, in which case there may be used
in or on such food any of the permitted colours listed in Parts I or II
of Schedule 5 in accordance with the conditions contained in that Schedule
governing the use of such colours in or on such foods;
(b) the food is not listed in either Schedule 2 or in Column
1 of Schedule 3, in which case there may be used in or on such food any
one or more of the permitted colours listed in Part I of Schedule 5 up
to an amount (in each case) ofquantum satis.
(4) No person shall use any permitted colour
listed in Column 1 of Schedule 4 in or on any food other than the food
or foods listed in relation to that permitted colour in Column 2 of that
Schedule.
Health marking etc. of certain meat and meat products
4. No person shall use
any colour for the purpose of any health marking as provided for in the
Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995[4]
or any other marking required on any meat product, other than the permitted
colours—
(b) E 133 Brilliant Blue FCF;
(c) E 129 Allura Red AC, or
(d) an appropriate mixture of (b) and (c) above.
Use of colours on eggshells
5. No person shall use
any colour for—
(a) the decorative colouring, or
(b) the stamping (as provided for in Regulation (EEC) No. 1274/91[5],
introducing detailed rules for implementing Regulation (EEC) No. 1907/90
on certain marketing standards for eggs),
of eggshells, other than a permitted colour.
Use of colours in or on compound foods
6.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3) below,
any food in or on which a permitted colour is used without contravening
any of the provisions of paragraphs (2), (3) or (4) of regulation 3 may
itself be used as an ingredient in a compound food in or on which the use
of such colour is not otherwise permitted, and the presence in or on that
compound food of such colour as a result of its containing such an ingredient
shall not constitute a contravention of any of the provisions of those
paragraphs of regulation 3.
(2) There may be used in or on a food any permitted
colour the use of which would otherwise constitute a contravention of any
of the provisions of paragraphs (2), (3) or (4) of regulation 3, where
such a food is destined to be used solely in the preparation of a compound
food and the resulting presence in or on that compound food of such colour
does not itself constitute a contravention of any of the provisions of
those paragraphs of regulation 3.
(3) Paragraph 1 above shall not apply in the
case of any compound food listed in Schedule 2.
Sale of colours and food containing colours
7.—(1) No person shall sell any colour
for use in or on food unless such colour is a permitted colour.
(2) No person shall sell directly to the consumer
any colour other than a specified permitted colour.
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2) above,
a "specified permitted colour" shall be any permitted colour other than—
(e) E 160b Annatto, bixin, norbixin;
(f) E 161g Canthaxanthin;
(h) E 180 Litholrubine BK.
(4) No person shall sell any food having
in it or on it any added colour other than a permitted colour that has
been used in or on that food without contravening any of the provisions
of regulations 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Condemnation of food
8. Where any food is certified
by a food analyst as being food which it is an offence against these Regulations
to sell, that food may be treated for the purposes of section 9 of the
Act (under which a food may be seized and destroyed on the order of a justice
of the peace) as failing to comply with food safety requirements, and section
8(3) shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as it applies for
the purposes of the Act.
Offences, penalties and enforcement
9.—(1) If any person contravenes or
fails to comply with any of the provisions of these Regulations he shall
be guilty of an offence, and liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
(2) Where an offence under these Regulations
is committed in Scotland 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.
(3) Subject to paragraph (4) below, each food
authority shall enforce and execute these Regulations in its area.
(4) In this regulation "food authority" does
not include—
(a) the council of a district in a non-metropolitan county in
England except where the county functions have been transferred to that
council pursuant to a structural change;
(b) until 1st April 1996, the council of a district in Wales;
or
(c) the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c)
of the Act (which deals with the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple).
Defence in relation to exports
10. In any proceedings
for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person
charged to prove—
(a) that the food or, as the case may be, the colour in respect
of which the offence is alleged to have been committed was intended for
export to a country which has legislation analogous to these Regulations
and that such food or colour complies with that legislation; and
(b) in the case of export to another member State, that the legislation
complies with Council Directive 89/107/EEC[6]
on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning food additives
authorised for use in foodstuffs intended for human consumption, Directive
94/36/EC and Directive 95/45/EC.
Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990
11. The following provisions
of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as they apply
for the purposes of section 8, 14 or 15 of the Act and, unless the context
otherwise requires, any reference in them to the Act shall be construed
for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations—
(a) section 2 (extended meaning of "sale" etc.);
(b) section 3 (presumption that food intended for human consumption);
(c) section 20 (offences due to fault of another person);
(d) section 21 (defence of due diligence);
(e) section 22 (defence of publication in the course of business);
(f) section 30(8) (which relates to documentary evidence);
(g) section 33 (obstruction etc. of officers);
(h) section 36 (offences by bodies corporate);
(i) section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith).
Revocations and Amendments
12.—(1) The Regulations specified in
Columns 1 and 2 of Schedule 6 shall be revoked to the extent specified
in Column 3 of that Schedule.
(2) In both the Specified Sugar Products Regulations
1976[7] and the Specified Sugar Products
(Scotland) Regulations 1976[8]—
(a) in paragraph (3)(d) of regulation 5 (labelling and description
of specified sugar products), for the words "colouring matter", in both
cases where they occur, there shall be substituted, in each case, the word
"colour";
(b) in sub-paragraph (b) of regulation 9 (permitted additional
ingredients in specified sugar products), for the words "colouring matter",
in both cases where they occur, there shall be substituted, in each case,
the word "colour".
(3) In both the Jam and Similar Products
Regulations 1981[9] and the Jam and Similar
Products (Scotland) Regulations 1981[10]—
(a) in paragraph (1) of regulation 2 (interpretation), for the
definition of "permitted colouring matter" there shall be substituted the
following definition—
""permitted colour" means any colour in so far as its use is permitted
by the Colours in Food Regulations 1995;" , and
(b) in Part III of Schedule 2 (permitted additional ingredients),
for the words "permitted colouring matters" in Column 1 there shall be
substituted the words "permitted colours".
(4) In the Meat Products and Spreadable
Fish Products Regulations 1984[11], in
paragraph (1) of regulation 2 (interpretation), in the definition of "additive"
for the words "the Colouring Matter in Food Regulations 1973" there shall
be substituted the words "the Colours in Food Regulations 1995".
(5) In the Meat Products and Spreadable Fish
Products (Scotland) Regulations 1984[12],
in paragraph (1) of regulation 2 (interpretation), in the definition of
"additive" for the words "the Colouring Matter in Food (Scotland) Regulations
1973" there shall be substituted the words "the Colours in Food Regulations
1995".
(6) In the Food Additives Labelling Regulations
1992[13], in Schedule 1 (categories of
food additives)—
(a) in Part I (list of food additives), for item 1 there shall
be substituted the following item—
(b) in Part II (supplementary), for subparagraph (a) there shall
be substituted the following subparagraph—
"(a) "colour" means any substance which is a colour for the purposes
of the Colours in Food Regulations 1995;" .
(7) In the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection)
Regulations 1995, in paragraph 6 of Schedule 12 (health marking), for the
words "the Colouring Matter in Food Regulations 1973" there shall be substituted
the words "the Colours in Food Regulations 1995".
Transitional provision and exemption
13.—(1) In any proceedings for an offence
against these Regulations it shall be a defence to prove that—
(a)
(i) the act was committed before 30th June 1996, or
(ii) the act was that of selling a colour or a food which, in
either case, was put on the market or labelled before 30th June 1996; and
(b) the matters constituting the offence would not have constituted
an offence under any Regulations now revoked or amended by these Regulations
if those Regulations had been in operation (in the case of Regulations
now being amended, as if such amendments had not been made) when the act
was committed or the colour or, as the case may be, the food was put on
the market or labelled.
(2) These Regulations shall not apply to
any colour or, as the case may be, food which—
(a) is brought into Great Britain before 30th June 1996 from
a member State in which it was lawfully produced and sold or in which it
was in free circulation and lawfully sold; and
(b) is suitably labelled to give the nature of the colour or,
as the case may be, the food.
(3) For the purpose of paragraph (2) above,
"free circulation" shall be construed in accordance with Article 9.2 of
the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Angela Browning
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
3rd December 1995
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health:
Cumberlege
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health
17th November 1995
Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Wales:
Rod Richards
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Welsh Office
23rd November 1995
Lindsay
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office
21st November 1995
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), Schedule 9, paragraph 6. back
[2] OJ No. L237, 10.9.94, p. 13. back
[3] OJ No. L226, 22.9.95, p. 1. back
[4] S.I. 1995/539, to
which there is an amendment not relevant to these Regulations.
back
[5] OJ No. L121, 16.5.91, p. 11. back
[6] OJ No. L40, 11.2.89, p. 27. back
[7] S.I. 1976/509; relevant amending instrument is S.I. 1980/1849.
back
[8] S.I. 1976/946; relevant amending instrument is S.I. 1980/1889.
back
[9] S.I. 1981/1063, to which there are amendments not relevant to these
Regulations. back
[10] S.I. 1981/1320, to which there are amendments not relevant to these
Regulations. back
[11] S.I. 1984/1566, to which there are amendments not relevant to these
Regulations. back
[12] S.I. 1984/1714, to which there are amendments not relevant to these
Regulations. back
[13] S.I. 1992/1978.
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