The Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 4) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations revoke and re-enact with certain changes the Animal Feedingstuffs from Belgium (Control) (No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 (“the revoked Regulations”) and implement, in relation to products for animal feeding Commission Decision 1999/640/EC on protective measures with regard to contamination by dioxins of certain products of animal origin intended for human or animal consumption (O.J. No. L253, 28.9.99, p. 19). Like the revoked Regulations, these Regulations—

(a) define “controlled entity” (regulation 2) and prohibit, subject to exceptions (regulation 3), the carrying out of specified operations with respect thereto (regulation 4);

(b) specify the enforcement authorities (regulation 5); and

(c) apply, with modifications, provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 6).

The Regulations make the following changes of substance—

(a) the coverage of the controls is narrower when compared to the revoked Regulations in that—

(i) they do not apply to bovine animals, but only to pigs and poultry, and

(ii) in relation to the categories of product derived from pigs and poultry to which they apply, they exclude certain material from the category “meat products and other products of animal origin”;

(b) however in the case of those categories of product, they remove the exclusion of milk fat previously contained in the category “products intended for human consumption which contain other products of porcine or poultry origin, which contain more than 2% of animal fat”;

(c) the controls in the Regulations apply irrespective of whether, in the case of poultry, pigs and eggs, these were reared/produced in holdings placed under restriction by Belgium authorities or, in the case of products derived from poultry or pigs, whether the animals concerned were so reared;

(d) they reflect changes (consequential on the changes referred to in (a) to (c)) to the certification requirements for the importation from Belgium of animals and animal products controlled by these Regulations, including the fact that there are no longer any conditions restricting the issue by Belgium of such certification; and

(e) because those conditions apply, they reflect the fact that the return of products to Belgium, in accordance with Article 5 of Decision 1999/640/EC, is now again permitted.