The Food Safety (Fishery Products and Live Shellfish) (Hygiene) Regulations 1998

CHAPTER IV SPECIAL CONDITIONS FOR HANDLING FISHERY PRODUCTS ON SHORE

Section I Conditions for fresh products

1.  Where chilled, unpackaged products are not dispatched, prepared or processed immediately after reaching the establishment, they must be stored or displayed under ice in the establishment’s cold room. Re-icing must be carried out as often as is necessary; the ice used, with or without salt, must be made from potable water or clean seawater and be stored under hygienic conditions in receptacles provided for the purpose; such receptacles must be kept clean and in a good state of repair. Pre-packed fresh products must be chilled with ice or mechanical refrigeration plant creating similar temperature conditions.

2.  If they are not carried out on board, operations such as heading and gutting must be carried out hygienically. The products must be washed thoroughly with potable water or clean seawater immediately after such operations.

3.  Operations such as filleting and slicing must be carried out in such a way as to avoid the contamination or spoilage of fillets and slices, and in a place other than that used for heading and gutting operations. Fillets and slices must not remain on work tables any longer than is necessary for their preparation and must be protected from contamination by appropriate packaging. Fillets and slices to be sold fresh must be chilled as quickly as possible after preparation.

4.  Guts and parts that may constitute a danger to public health must be separated from and removed from the vicinity of products intended for human consumption.

5.  Containers used for the dispatch or storage of fresh fishery products must be designed in such a way as to ensure both their protection from contamination and their preservation under sufficiently hygienic conditions and, more particularly, they must provide adequate drainage of melt water.

6.  Unless special facilities are provided for the continuous disposal of waste, the latter must be placed in leakproof, covered containers which are easy to clean and disinfect. Waste must not be allowed to accumulate in working areas. It must be removed either continuously or as soon as the containers are full and at least at the end of each working day in the containers or to the premises referred to in paragraph 6 of Section I of Chapter III. The containers, receptacles and/or premises set aside for waste must always be thoroughly cleaned and, if appropriate, disinfected after use. Waste stored there must not constitute a source of contamination for the establishment or of pollution of its surroundings.

Section II Conditions for frozen products

1.  Plants must have—

(a) freezing equipment sufficiently powerful to achieve a rapid reduction in the temperature so that the temperature laid down in these Regulations can be obtained in the product;

(b) freezing equipment sufficiently powerful to keep products in storage rooms at a temperature not exceeding those laid down in these Regulations, whatever the ambient temperature may be,

however, for technical reasons related to the method of freezing and to the handling of such products, for whole fish frozen in brine and intended for canning, higher temperatures than those laid down in these Regulations are acceptable, although they may not exceed −9°C.

2.  Fresh products to be frozen or quick-frozen must comply with the requirements of Section I of this Chapter.

3.—(1) Storage rooms must have a temperature recording device in a place where it can easily be read. The temperature sensor of the recorder must be located in the area furthest away from the cold source, i.e. where the temperature in the storage room is the highest.

(2) Temperature charts must be available for inspection by the supervisory authorities at least during the period in which the products are stored.

Section III Conditions for thawing products

Establishments that carry out thawing operations must comply with the following requirements—

1.  fishery products must be thawed under hygienic conditions; their contamination must be avoided and there must be adequate drainage for any melt water produced. During thawing, the temperature of the products must not increase excessively;

2.  after thawing, fishery products must be handled in accordance with the requirements of these Regulations. When they are prepared or processed, these operations must be carried out without delay. If they are put directly onto the market, particulars as to the thawed state of the fish must be clearly marked on the packaging in accordance with the Food Labelling Regulations 1996.

Section IV Conditions for processed products

1.  Fresh, frozen and thawed products used for processing must comply with the requirements set out in Sections I, II or III of this Chapter.

2.—(1) Where the processing treatment is carried out to inhibit the development of pathogenic micro-organisms, or if it is a significant factor in the preservation of the product, the treatment must be a scientific process which produces safe food, or in the case of a treatment of products referred to in Parts II and III of Chapter I of Schedule 2 which have not been relayed or purified, such treatment must be a form of treatment mentioned in the Annex to Commission Decision 93/25/EEC approving certain treatments to inhibit the development of pathogenic micro-organ isms in bivalve molluscs and marine gastropods.

(2)  The person responsible for an establishment must keep a register of the processing carried out. Depending on the type of process employed, details such as heating time and temperature, salt content, pH, water content, etc. must be monitored and controlled. Records must be kept at least for the expected storage life of the products and be available to the food authority.

3.  For products which are preserved for a limited period by a treatment such as salting, smoking, drying or marinading, the appropriate conditions for storage must be clearly marked on the packaging, in accordance with the Food Labelling Regulations 1996.

Canning

4.  In the case of fishery products which have been subjected to sterilisation in hermetically sealed containers—

(a) the water used for the preparation of cans must be potable water;

(b) the process used for the heat treatment must be appropriate, having regard to such major criteria as the heating time, temperature, filling, size of containers etc., a record of which must be kept; the heat treatment must be capable of destroying or inactivating pathogenic organisms and the spores of pathogenic micro-organisms. The heating equipment must be fitted with devices for verifying whether the containers have in fact undergone appropriate heat treatment. Potable water must be used to cool containers after heat treatment, without prejudice to the presence of any chemical additives used in accordance with good technological practice to prevent corrosion of the equipment and containers;

(c) further checks must be carried out at random by the manufacturer to ensure that the processed products have undergone appropriate heat treatment, viz—

• incubation tests: incubation must be carried out at 37°C for seven days or at 35°C for ten days, or at any other equivalent combination;

• microbiological examination of contents and containers in the establishment’s laboratory or in a laboratory recognised by the food authority;

(d) samples must be taken of production each day at predetermined intervals, to ensure the efficacy of sealing or of any other method of hermetic closure. For that purpose, appropriate equipment must be available for the examination of cross-sections of the can-seams;

(e) checks are carried out in order to ensure that containers are not damaged;

(f) all containers which have undergone heat treatment under practically identical conditions must be given a batch identification mark, in accordance with the Food (Lot Marking) Regulations 1996(1).

Smoking

5.  Smoking must be carried out in separate premises or a special place equipped, if necessary, with a ventilation system to prevent the smoke and heat from the combustion from affecting other premises or places where fishery products are prepared, processed or stored—

(a) materials used to produce smoke for the smoking of fish must be stored away from the place of smoking and must be used in such a way that they do not contaminate the products;

(b) materials used to produce smoke by burning wood that has been painted, varnished, glued or has undergone any chemical preservation treatment must be prohibited;

(c) after smoking, products must be cooled rapidly to the temperature required for their preservation before being packaged.

Salting

6.  As regards salting—

(a) salting operations must take place in different premises and sufficiently removed from the premises where the other operations are carried out;

(b) salt used in the treatment of fishery products must be clean and stored in such a way as to preclude contamination. It must not be re-used;

(c) any container used for salting or brining must be constructed in such a way as to preclude contamination during the salting or brining process;

(d) containers or areas used for salting or brining must be cleaned before use.

Cooked crustacean and molluscan shellfish

7.  Crustaceans and molluscan shellfish must be cooked as follows—

(a) any cooking must be followed by rapid cooling. Water used for this purpose must be potable water or clean seawater. If no other method of preservation is used, cooling must continue until the temperature approaching that of melting ice is reached;

(b) shelling or shucking must be carried out under hygienic conditions avoiding the contamination of the product. Where such operations are done by hand, workers must pay particular attention to the washing of their hands and all working surfaces must be cleaned thoroughly. If machines are used, they must be cleaned at frequent intervals and disinfected after each working day. After shelling or shucking, cooked products must immediately be frozen or kept chilled at a temperature which will preclude the growth of pathogens, and be stored in appropriate premises;

(c) every manufacturer must carry out microbiological checks at regular intervals, complying with the standards and other obligations set out in Commission Decision 93/51/EEC on the microbiological criteria applicable to the production of cooked crustaceans and molluscan shellfish, but for the purposes of that Commission Decision—

(i) the reference in article 3(1) to the requirements of article 6 of the Council Directive shall be treated as if it were a reference to regulation 28, and

(ii) the reference in the first indented paragraph of article 3(2) to competent authorities shall be treated as a reference to the food authority which approved the establishment in question.

Mechanically recovered fish flesh

8.  The mechanical recovery of fish flesh must be carried out under the following conditions—

(a) mechanical recovery of gutted fish must take place without undue delay after filleting, using raw materials free of guts. Where whole fish are used, they must be gutted and washed beforehand;

(b) the machinery must be cleaned at frequent intervals and at least every two hours;

(c) after recovery, mechanically recovered flesh must be frozen as quickly as possible or incorporated in a product intended for freezing or stabilising treatment.

Section V Conditions concerning parasites

1.—(1) During production and before they are released for human consumption, fish and fish products must be subject to a visual inspection for the purpose of detecting and removing any parasites that are visible.

(2) Fish or parts of fish which are obviously infested with parasites, and which are removed, must not be placed on the market for human consumption.

(3) This inspection must be carried out in accordance with the rules set out in the Commission Decision 93/140/EEC laying down the detailed rules relating to the visual inspection for the purpose of detecting parasites in fishery products, but for the purposes of that Commission Decision—

(a) the competent authority to which article 4 of that Decision refers is the food authority; and

(b) the provisions referred to in that article (the provisions in accordance with which a sampling plan must be drawn up) are those specified in regulation 28(4).

2.  The fish and fish products referred to in paragraph 1(1) of this Section which are to be consumed as they are must, in addition, be subjected to freezing at a temperature of not more than −20°C in all parts of the product for not less than 24 hours. Products subjected to this freezing process must be either raw or finished.

3.  Fish and fish products which are subject to the conditions in paragraph 2 are—

(a) fish to be consumed raw or almost raw, e.g. raw herring `maatje';

(b) the following species, if they are to undergo a cold smoking process at which the internal temperature of the fish is less than 60°C—

• herring;

• mackerel;

• sprat;

• (wild) Atlantic and Pacific salmon;

(c) marinated and/or salted herring where this process is insufficient to kill the larvae of nematodes.

4.  Manufacturers must ensure that fish and fish products listed in paragraph 3, or the raw materials for use in their manufacture, are subjected to the treatment described in paragraph 2 prior to their release for consumption.

5.  The fishery products listed in paragraph 3 must, when they are placed on the market, be accompanied by a document from the manufacturer stating the type of process they have undergone.

(1)

S.I. 1996/1502.