TITLE VU.K. SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR OFFICIAL CONTROLS CONCERNING LIVE BIVALVE MOLLUSCS FROM CLASSIFIED PRODUCTION AND RELAYING AREAS

CHAPTER III U.K. Management of classified production and relaying areas after monitoring

Article 63U.K.Re-opening of production areas

1.The competent authorities may re-open a closed production or relaying area only if the health standards for live bivalve molluscs comply once again with the relevant requirements of Chapter V of Section VII of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 and present no other risk to human health.

2.Where the competent authorities have closed a production or relaying area because of the presence of plankton or levels of toxins in live bivalve molluscs that exceed the regulatory limit for marine biotoxins laid down in point 2 of Chapter V of Section VII of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004, they may re-open it only if at least two consecutive analytical results separated by at least 48 hours are below the regulatory limit.

3.When deciding whether to re-open a production or relaying area, the competent authorities may take account of information on phytoplankton trends.

4.Where there are robust data on the dynamic of the toxicity for a given area, and provided that recent data on decreasing trends of toxicity are available, the competent authorities may decide to re-open an area with results below the regulatory limit in point 2 of Chapter V of Section VII of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 obtained from a single sampling.