Food Labelling (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Food Labelling Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, as amended (“the principal Regulations”). The Regulations implement Commission Directive 1999/10/EC providing for derogations from the provisions of Article 7 of Council Directive 79/112/EEC as regards the labelling of foodstuffs.

The principal Regulations require the quantity of certain ingredients or categories of ingredients of a food to be indicated (regulations 5(b) and 19 of those Regulations).

These Regulations—

(a) remove that obligation in the case of sweeteners, sugars, vitamins or minerals used in the preparation of a food in certain circumstances (regulation 5);

(b) provide some derogations from the existing method for calculating the quantity of ingredients or categories of ingredients (regulation 5);

(c) make a consequential amendment (regulation 3) and contain a transitional provision (regulation 7).

These Regulations also require prepacked food sold or supplied as an individual portion and intended as a minor accompaniment to another food or another service to be marked or labelled with particulars relating to packaging gases, added sweeteners or added sugars, unless exempted under regulation 26(1) of the principal Regulations (regulations 6 and 7). This implements Commission Directive 94/54/EC (O.J. No. L300, 23.11.94, p. 14) concerning the compulsory indication on the labelling of certain foodstuffs of particulars other than those provided for in Directive 79/112/EEC, as amended by Council Directive 96/21/EC (O.J. No. L88, 5.4.96, p. 5) and as read with Article 11(4) of Directive 79/112/EEC (O.J. No. L33, 8.2.79, p. 1).

The Regulations also make a minor correction (regulation 4).