EC proposals to consolidate and simplify EU food hygiene legislation

Andrew Spencer
Microbiological Safety Division (Branch C)
Food Standards Agency
Room 715b Aviation House
125 Kingsway
London WC2B 6NH
Tel: 020 7276 8779
Fax: 020 7276 8390
Email : andrew.spencer@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Contact for the FSA Scotland consultation:

David Roy
Food Standards Agency Scotland
St Magnus House
25 Guild Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6NJ
Tel: 01224 285164
Fax: 01224 285168
Email : david.roy@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Contact for the FSA Northern Ireland consultation:

Olivia Keown
Food Standards Agency Northern Ireland
10C Clarendon Road
Belfast
BT13BG
Phone: 02890417706
Fax: 02890417726
Email: olivia.keown@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Background

The aim of the European Commission White Paper on food safety was to achieve a high degree of public assurance in the safety of food through a system of effective and proportionate controls. The existing legislation comprises 16 commodity specific EU Directives and one Directive on general food law.

In July 2000, the Commission issued a package of five linked proposals as follows:

• Proposed Regulation for food hygiene rules applicable to all food sectors (H1);
• Proposed Regulation for specific hygiene rules applicable to products of animal origin (H2);
• Proposed Regulation for official controls on products of animal origin (H3);
• Proposed Directive to consolidate existing animal health provisions (H4) (now adopted); and
• Proposed Directive to repeal existing Directives and make various savings provisions (H5).

Present state of negotiations on the proposals

On 27 October 2003 the Council of Ministers formally adopted a Common Position on First Reading of the four remaining food hygiene proposals (i.e. H1, H2, H3 and H5). H4 was adopted in the EU in December 2002 (Directive 2002/99/EC) and will come into force in January 2005. Copies of the latest versions of the remaining 4 proposals are provided at Annex 1. Annex 1 also contains a list of key definitions from General Food Law (Regulation 178/2002) that are relevant to the consolidated food hygiene legislation.

The proposals have now returned to the European Parliament for Second Reading. There is a possibility of agreement being reached and the proposals entering into force in the first half of 2004. If the formula agreed in the Council for the date of application is adopted, the legislation will apply from 1 January 2006, or 18 months after entry into force, whichever is the later.

Although the negotiations are not concluded and the texts could change from those at Annex A, we need to begin to consult you now on certain key policy areas, in order to be prepared to apply the legislation from 2006.

Please note that this is a UK-wide consultation that covers the interests of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If any of the information that you provide is of particular relevance to any of these countries please make that clear in your response.

Aim of this consultation

The three main EC Regulations that make up the package (H1, H2 and H3) will be directly applicable and therefore constitute the law in each Member State of the EU. National legislation is not required nor indeed allowed to give effect to the EU Regulations, beyond providing for their enforcement in the UK. However, there are a number of areas in the Regulations that either require or allow Member States to adopt certain provisions as appropriate in their national law. In addition, we will need to develop appropriate guidance on the enforcement of the legislation as well as explanatory guidance material for food businesses subject to the legislation.

In certain areas adaption of the requirements contained in the EU legislation may also be possible, subject to any requests to amend the EU Regulations being adopted by the Commission and the Member States via the Standing Committee procedure. We are not seeking your views on this as part of this consultation.

This consultation seeks any comments you may have either in general or within your specific area of interest prior to the FSA preparing national legislation and guidance to apply the EU Regulations in the four countries of the UK. We will be consulting separately on guidance in respect of the requirement for food safety management contained in Article 5 of H1. The results of this consultation will feed into the development of draft national legislation. We would encourage you to provide evidence, where appropriate, to support your responses.

A detailed description of the areas where we are seeking your input to our policy is attached at Annex 2. In each case, the FSA has provided its own perspective in the form of suggested preferred policy options. However, we emphasise that no firm decisions have yet been made and that you are welcome to suggest alternatives. A summary of the main areas is set out below.

• the national rules to apply to certain categories of direct sale exempted from the EU Regulations;
• the rules to apply to the supply of food of animal origin from one retail establishment to another;
• the form that registration of food business operators should take;
• how to make lists of approved establishments available to other Member States and the public;
• whether or not to use individual approval codes in addition to an approval number and whether secondary numbers for units of wholesale markets should be used;
• whether or not food chain information could accompany animals to the slaughterhouse rather than being provided in advance, in certain circumstances;
• whether or not authorisation should be provided for some fish products not to be frozen and for these products to be transported over short distances; and
• questions specific to the primary production sector.

Your comments are also requested concerning potential areas in existing national food hygiene legislation that need to be retained because they are not contained within the scope of the new European consolidated legislation. A full list of principal legislation that is to be revoked is attached at Annex 3. A detailed description of the existing provisions that the FSA considers should be retained in the new national legislation is provided at Annex 4. In each case background to the main existing food hygiene legislation is provided followed by a description of the areas that need to be retained. We would also be grateful for your comments on any other areas of the legislation that you consider should be retained. As mentioned above, we would encourage you to provide evidence, where appropriate, to support your responses.

The FSA will prepare a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the implementation of the EU hygiene package. The FSA has already prepared an RIA for the EC proposals. The second RIA will relate to the national legislation themselves implementing the policy options outlined in this consultation in UK law. We do not anticipate the national flexibilities envisaged by the Regulations resulting in significant costs and burdens to stakeholders.

However, if you envisage or identify any associated costs or benefits as a result of these proposals, it would be useful if you could include them in your reply to this consultation. The information could then be used for preparation of the RIA. Once again, we would encourage you to provide evidence, where appropriate, to support your responses. Where any of the information you are providing is of particular relevance to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, we request that your response makes this clear.

Comments on this consultation

Comments and information should be sent to the appropriate contact details shown above.

We intend to carry out a further consultation on the draft national legislation, national guidance and RIA on the proposals once prepared in the autumn. In order for us to meet our deadlines for the overall implementation of the proposals, we would be grateful to receive comments by 9 June 2004. If you consider it to be appropriate, please provide a summary of the people and organisations that you represent.

This consultation closed on 9 June 2004. Links to summaries of stakeholders' comments from England & Wales, Scotland and from Northern Ireland as well as FSA responses to those commments can be found at the foot of this page.

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. Responses will be open to public access upon request. The FSA will also publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name and contact address details. 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 Judith Taylor, the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator, on 020 7276 8633.
Email: judith.taylor@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk