Updates

The Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019

  • Legal

Jurisdiction:  Northern Ireland

Commencement:   22nd February 2019

Amends:  

  1. The Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016
  2. The Medical Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

 

Mini Summary

These Regulations provide for the enforcement, in Northern Ireland, of:

Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128 is the first Regulation that sets out the specific information and compositional requirements for Food for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP)

Regulation (EU) No. 609/2013 sets out the general rules for governing the composition and labelling requirements for certain categories of food.

These Regulations provide for the enforcement of those requirements by applying certain provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991

 

Duties

These Regulations enforce the following Articles of Regulations (EU) No. 2016/128 and their requirements;

Article 2(2) (requirement for the formulation of food to be based on sound medical and nutritional principles)

Requires the formulation of FSMP to be based on sound medical and nutritional principles, used in accordance within the manufacturer’s instructions and meeting the specific nutritional requirements for who it is intended for.

Article 3(2) (requirement relating to residue levels)

FSMPs to satisfy the nutritional requirements of young children shall not contain residue levels exceeding 0.01 mg/kg per active substance. Active substances are referred to micro-organisms having general or specific action against harmful organisms.

Article 3(4) (prohibition on the use of plant protection products)

FSMP to satisfy the nutritional requirements of young children shall not contain any agricultural products which have been produced using plant protection products (pesticides etc.) which contain any of the active substances listed in Annex III.

Article 4 (name of the the food)

The name of a FSMP shall be set out in accordance with Annex IV

Article 5(2) (specific requirements on food information)

This lists the statements that must be included on the labels of FSMPs

Article 6 (specific requirements on food information)

Declaring the nutritional information is mandatory for all FSMPs irrespective of the size of the container or packaging it is places in.

Article 7 (nutrition and health claims)

There shall be no nutrition and health claims on FSMPs

Article 9 (notification requirement)

When a FSMP is placed on the market, the food business operator must notify the district council where the product is being marketed and is to send a label containing all the information appearing on the product.

 

Amendments

The Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

These Regulations make provision to enforce Regulation (EU) 2016/128 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 as regards the specific compositional and information requirements for food for special medical purposes

This is the first Regulation that sets out the specific information and compositional requirements for FSMP

In Regulation 2 (interpretation) several amendments are made:

  • A definition of ‘Delegated Regulation’ is inserted to mean Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128
  • A definition of ‘food for special medical purposes’  is added to have the same meaning as in Regulation (EU) No. 609/2013 on food intended for infants and young children, food for special medical purposes and total diet replacement for weight control, Article 2(g), to ensure consistency.
  • The phrase ‘infant’ has been defined as a child under the age of 12 months.
  • The definition of ‘Specified EU requirement’ now includes reference to Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128 which is referred to as the Delegated Regulation.
  • Paragraph 5 is inserted to make clear that these Regulations do not cover FSMP for infants and Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128 only applies to FSMP and not FSMP to satisfy the nutritional requirements of infants.

Regulation 8 (Transitional Arrangements) is inserted, to introduce a transitional arrangement which allows for stocks of food not complying with Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128 to be marketed until stocks are exhausted as long as;

A new table is inserted into Schedule 1, to ensure consistency with the provision of the EU Regulations. References to Regulation (EU) No. 2016/128 in Schedule 1 should be read as the most up to date version as amended.

 

The Medical Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

An amendment is made to Regulation 2 (interpretation) to make clear that this Regulation only covers Food for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP) for infants by including the phrase ‘ developed to satisfy the nutritional requirements of infants’ into the definition of medical food.

Other FSMPs are covered by The Food Safety (Information and Compositional Requirements) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

 

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