The Food Hygiene (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2012

The principal EU regulations covering food hygiene¹ are amended on a regular basis by other EU regulations. While EU food hygiene regulations apply directly in the UK, it is necessary for each country of the UK to make national law, in Scotland in the form of a Statutory Instrument (SI) to enable full application of the EU Regulations (e.g. to provide for the enforcement of new requirements of the EU Regulations).

The Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) that is the subject of this consultation, is the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012, which is required to:

• Give full effect to EU Food Hygiene Regulations that have been made since April 2010², when the national food hygiene legislation was last amended
• Make provision for an 'ambulatory reference' that will in future automatically give effect to technical changes to EU food regulations, without the need to make new national regulations to give effect to the changes
• Introduce a national special health mark for carcasses and packaged meat from ‘emergency slaughtered’ animals as required by EU law.

Similar consultations are being undertaken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Stakeholders should note that this proposed SSI has already been consulted on in an earlier form between 1 April and the 24 June 2010 as the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2010. The ambulatory provisions and the special health mark provisions were included in that draft SSI. The consultation documents and stakeholders' responses can be seen on the FSA's website³. No objections were raised by stakeholders to the introduction of the ambulatory reference.

Since this consultation, some further amendments have been added to the SSI, the ambulatory reference provision has been amended and as more recent EU Regulations have been adopted, where appropriate they have been added to the draft SSI Schedule 1 in order that the schedule gives effect to the most recent EU regulations (set out in Annexe F).

The Food Standards Agency is required to consult interested parties on all changes to food law, both EU and national, and where there is any likelihood that the impacts of changes to laws may be significant, the FSA in Scotland will prepare full Business and Regulatory Impact Assessments (BRIAs), formally setting out its considered views on the costs and/or benefits of these changes. BRIAs are normally started at the early stage of the life of a proposed EU regulation and updated accordingly.

Three partial BRIAs are included in this consultation on which the FSA asks stakeholders to comment on its considered views on the costs and or benefits of the following;

• Changes to the documentation requirements for the import of composite products (Regulation (EC) 1162/2009)
• Issues relating to the certification of farmed game (Regulations (EU) 150/2011 and (EU) 151/2011)
• Specific requirements for microbiological classification and packaging for live bivalve molluscs, pectinidae and marine gastropods. (Regulations (EU) 558/2010 and (EU) 505/2010)

Throughout the partial BRIAs, questions are raised for stakeholders to consider and respond to or comments drawing stakeholders’ attentions to particular pieces of information are underlined.

Broadly the consultation falls into four main parts, which are:

• Draft of the proposed Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012
• Existing EU food hygiene regulations that will be given effect by the draft SSI
• Proposed EU food hygiene regulations
• Three partial BRIAs on the import of composite product certification, farmed game and specific requirements for microbiological classification and packaging for live bivalve molluscs, pectinidae and marine gastropods

FSA in Scotland would welcome comments from stakeholders on the current draft of the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012, in particular noting the introduction of the ambulatory reference and the special health mark for meat from emergency slaughtered animals. In addition, any comments on the three partial BRIAs as well as asking stakeholders to consider if the FSA should produce BRIAs on other EU Regulations covered or referred to in this consultation.

Endnotes
¹ Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs; Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of 29 April 2004 laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin and Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 of 29 April 2004 laying down specific rules for the
organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption. There is also Regulation (EC) 2073/2005 of 15 November 2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs.
² The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 – see link below.
³ See link below.

Responses are required by close 21 February 2012. Please state, in your response, whether you are responding as a private individual or on behalf of an organisation/company (including details of any stakeholders your organisation represents).

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. The FSA will publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name. Disclosure of any other personal data would be made only upon request for the full consultation responses. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk