The Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

PART I GENERAL

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Official Controls (Animals, Feed and Food) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, shall come into operation on 2nd April 2007.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the 2006 Regulations” means the Official Feed and Food Controls Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006(1);

“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;

“audit” means, except in regulation 6, an audit of a competent authority carried out for the purposes of Article 4.6 of Regulation 882/2004 in relation to one or more pieces of relevant legislation; and

“auditor” means a person carrying out such an audit;

“inspector” means a person appointed to be an inspector for the purposes of these Regulations by the Department and includes a veterinary inspector, and in relation to any piece of relevant legislation means a person appointed as an inspector by the Department to act in Northern Ireland under that relevant legislation;

“premises” means premises or other property, place or means of transport;

“Regulation 882/2004” means Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules(2), as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 776/2006 amending Annex VII as regards Community reference laboratories(3) and as read with—

(a)

Commission Decision 2006/677 setting out the guidelines laying down criteria for the conduct of audits under Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls to verify compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules(4);

(b)

Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2074/2005 laying down implementing measures for certain products under Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and for the organisation of official controls under Regulation (EC) No. 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, derogating from Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Regulations (EC) No. 853/2004 and (EC) No. 854/2004(5);

(c)

Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2076/2005 laying down transitional arrangements for the implementation of Regulations (EC) No. 853/2004, (EC) No. 854/2004, and (EC) No. 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Regulations (EC) No. 853/2004 and (EC) No. 854/2004(6); and

(d)

Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety as last amended by Regulation (EC) No. 575/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

“relevant legislation” means feed law and food law to which Regulation 882/2004 applies and animal health and welfare rules, except—

(a)

“relevant feed law” and “relevant food law” as defined in the 2006 Regulations; and

(b)

the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2006(7) in so far as they regulate zootechnical additives and medicated feedingstuffs.

(2) In the definition of “relevant legislation” in paragraph (1)—

(a) “medicated feedingstuffs” has the meaning given in Article 1.6 of Directive 2001/82/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Community code relating to veterinary medicinal products(8) as amended by Directive 2004/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2001/82/EC on the Community code relating to veterinary medicinal products(9); and

(b) “zootechnical additives” means feed additives in the categories mentioned in Article 6.1(d) and (e) of Regulation (EC) No. 1831/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on additives for use in animal nutrition(10) with the exception of those belonging to the functional group listed in paragraph 4(a), (b) and (c) of Annex 1 to that Regulation.

(3) Unless otherwise provided in this regulation, terms used in these Regulations have the same meaning as they have in Regulation 882/2004.

(4) Unless the context otherwise requires, references in these Regulations to an “Article” or “Title” are to an Article or Title, respectively, of Regulation 882/2004.

(5) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(11) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

(1)

S.R. 2006 No.2

(2)

O.J. No. L165, 30.4.2004, p.1; see the corrected text as set out in the corrigendum to the Regulation published in O.J. No. L 191, 28.5.2004, p.1

(3)

O.J. No. L136, 24.5.2006, p.3

(4)

O.J. No. L278, 10.10.2006, p.15

(5)

O.J. No. L338, 22.12.2005, p,27

(6)

O.J. No. L338, 22.12.2005, p.83

(7)

S.I. 2006/2407

(8)

O.J. No. L311, 28.11.2001, p.1

(9)

O.J. No. L136, 30.4.2004, p.58

(10)

O.J. No. L268, 18.10.2003, p.29

(11)

1954 c.33 (N.I.)