The Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997

Title and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations 1997 and shall come into force on 16th June 1997.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“food authority” has the same meaning as set out in section 5(1), (1A), (2) and (3) of the Act(1) save that it 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; or

(b)

the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c) of the Act (which deals with the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple);

“novel food” and “novel food ingredients” have the meaning set out in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No. 258/97(2)

“Regulation (EC) No. 258/97” means Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning novel foods and novel food ingredients; and

“specified Community provision” means a provision of Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 specified in column 1, and described in column 2, of the Schedule to these Regulations.

(2) Other expressions used in these Regulations have, insofar as the context admits, the same meanings as in Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 and in these Regulations any reference to a numbered article is a reference to the article so numbered in Regulation (EC) No. 258/97.

Requests relating to Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients

3.  Any request made pursuant to Article 4.1. shall be submitted for processing to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who shall act jointly with the Secretary of State for Health as the food assessment body in Great Britain for the purposes of that Regulation.

Enforcement

4.  Each food authority shall, within its area, enforce and execute the provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 258/97 and these Regulations.

Offences and penalties

5.—(1) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the specified Community provisions 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 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 liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Application of various provisions of the Act

6.  The following provisions of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as they apply for the purposes of sections 8, 14 or 15 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—

(a) section 2	(extended meaning of “sale” etc.);
(b) section 3	(presumption that food is intended for human consumption);
(c) section 20	(offences due to fault of another person);
(d) section 21	(defence of due diligence);
(e) section 30(8)	(which relates to documentary evidence);
(f) section 35(1) to (3)	(punishment of offences) insofar as it relates to offences under section 33(1) and (2);
(g) section 36	(offences by bodies corporate); and
(h) section 44	(protection of officers acting in good faith).

Powers of Entry

7.  Sections 32 and 33 of the Act (powers of entry; obstruction etc. of officers) shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations, as they apply for the purposes of the Act and any reference in subsection (1) of that section to the Act shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as including a reference to the specified Community provision.

Jeff Rooker

Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

21st May 1997

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health

Tessa Jowell

Minister of State, for Public Health

20th May 1997

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Wales

Win Griffiths

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Welsh Office

19th May 1997

Sewel

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office

21st May 1997