The Country of Origin of Certain Meats Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Country of Origin of Certain Meats Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 and come into operation on 11th September 2015.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“authorised officer” means a person authorised by an enforcement authority (within the meaning of the Order) for the purposes of these Regulations;

“batch” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(b);

“batch code” means any existing mark on a label or packaging, such as a date mark or lot number, which a food business operator can demonstrate, when cross referenced with other information, allows them to identify the origins of the meat;

“Commission Regulation” means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1337/2013 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine, sheep, goats and poultry;

“food business operator” has the meaning given in point 3 of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

“mass caterer” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers(1);

“trimmings” has the meaning given in Article 2(2)(a);

“the Order” means the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991.

(2) Any reference to an Article is a reference to an Article of the Commission Regulation.

(3) Any reference to the Commission Regulation is a reference to that Regulation as amended from time to time.

(4) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(2) applies to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

Competent authority

3.  Each district council within its district is the competent authority for the purposes of—

(a) the third subparagraph of Article 5(1) (labelling of meat where specified rearing period not attained in any member State or third country); and

(b) Article 5(2) (labelling of meat where “origin” indicated on the label).

Enforcement authorities

4.—(1) These Regulations are enforced by each district council within its district.

Records

5.—(1) A food business operator must keep a record of information under the identification and registration system required by Article 3 (traceability).

(2) A food business operator must retain each record for a period of 12 months from the end of the calendar year to which the record relates.

Application of provisions of the Order

6.—(1) Articles 9(1) and (2) of the Order (improvement notices) apply, with the modification (in the case of Article 9(1)) specified in Part 1 of the Schedule for the purposes of—

(a) enabling an improvement notice to be served on a person requiring the person to comply with—

(i) any of Articles 3 to 6 and 8 of the Commission Regulation; or

(ii) regulation 5; and

(b) making the failure to comply with a notice referred to in subparagraph (a) an offence.

(2) Article 33 of the Order (powers of entry) applies, with the modifications specified in Part 2 of the Schedule, for the purposes of enabling an authorised officer—

(a) to exercise a power of entry to ascertain whether there is, or has been, any contravention of any of Articles 3 to 6 and 8 of the Commission Regulation;

(b) to exercise a power of entry to ascertain whether there is any evidence of any contravention of such a provision; and

(c) when exercising a power of entry under the provisions of Article 33 as applied by this paragraph, to exercise the powers in paragraphs (6) and (7) relating to records.

(3) Article 37 (appeals) and Article 38 (appeals against improvement notices) of the Order apply, with the modifications specified in Part 3 of the Schedule for the purpose of enabling a decision to serve a notice referred to in paragraph (1)(a) to be appealed.

(4) The provisions of the Order specified in the first column of the table in Part 4 of the Schedule apply with the modifications specified in the second column of that table for the purposes of these Regulations.

Sealed with the official seal of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 4th August 2015.

Julie Thompson

A senior officer of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety