The Minced Meat and Meat Preparations (Hygiene) Regulations 1995

PART IPRELIMINARY

Title and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Minced Meat and Meat Preparations (Hygiene) Regulations 1995 and shall come into force on 1st January 1996.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,—

“the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“approval authority” means—

“approved” in relation to any premises, means approved under these Regulations and “approval” has a corresponding meaning;

“cold store” means any premises which store minced meat or meat preparations under refrigerated conditions;

“cold treatment” means treatment by refrigeration;

“combined premises” means—

“contravention” in relation to any provision of these Regulations, includes a failure to comply with that provision, and “contravenes” has a corresponding meaning;

“EEA Agreement” means the Agreement on the European Economic Area(1) signed at Oporto on 2 May 1992, as adjusted by the Protocol(2) signed at Brussels on 17 March 1993;

“EEA State” means a State which is a Contracting Party to the EEA Agreement;

“enforcement authority” is to be construed in accordance with regulation 12;

“farmed game” means wild land mammals which are reared and slaughtered in captivity, excluding—

“farmed game bird meat” means the meat of birds, including ratites, but excluding poultry, which are not generally considered domestic but which are bred, reared and slaughtered in captivity;

“farmed game meat” means meat obtained from farmed game;

“final consumer” means a person who buys minced meat or meat preparations—

“food authority” includes a port health authority;

“the Fresh Meat Regulations” means the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995(3);

“health mark” means a mark of a kind described in Schedule 7 and applied in accordance with regulation 7(1)(e) or 8(1)(h), as the case may be, and that Schedule;

“the Hygiene Regulations” means the Fresh Meat Regulations, the Poultry Meat Regulations or the Wild Game Meat Regulations;

“independent premises” means any premises which are not licensed premises or premises approved under the Meat Products Regulations;

“industrial premises” means any establishment which produces minced meat or, even if no minced meat is produced, whose total production of meat products and meat preparations exceeds 7.5 tonnes per week;

“licensed” means licensed under the Hygiene Regulations;

“meat” means parts of animals, excluding solipeds, or birds which are suitable for human consumption and have been—

“meat preparation” means meat to which foodstuffs, seasonings or additives have been added or which has undergone a treatment insufficient to modify its internal cellular structure and so alter its characteristics;

“meat product” means any product, intended for human consumption, prepared from or with meat which has undergone treatment such that the cut surface shows that the product no longer has the characteristics of fresh meat, but does not include—

“the Meat Products Regulations” means the Meat Products (Hygiene) Regulations 1994(5);

“mechanically recovered meat” means meat which—

“minced meat” means meat which has been minced into fragments or passed through a spiral screw mincer and includes such meat to which not more than 1 per cent salt has been added;

“non-industrial premises” means any establishment whose total production of meat products and meat preparations does not exceed 7.5 tonnes per week and which does not produce minced meat;

“occupier” means a person carrying on the business of producing or storing minced meat or meat preparations;

“packaging”, in relation to minced meat and meat preparations, means the placing of one or more of those products, wrapped or unwrapped, in a container, as well as the container itself;

“the Poultry Meat Regulations” means the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995(6);

“premises” means any industrial or non-industrial premises;

“pre-prepared minced meat” means minced meat destined for use in a meat preparation but which has been stored, other than incidentally to a continuous manufacturing process, before such use;

“production” means manufacturing, preparing, processing, packaging, wrapping or rewrapping and “produce” has a corresponding meaning;

“registered premises” means premises which are not approved premises but which are licensed, approved under the Meat Products Regulations or registered under the Food Premises (Registration) Regulations 1991(7);

“relevant EEA State” means an EEA State other than Iceland;

“seasonings” means salt, mustard, spices and aromatic spice extracts, or aromatic herbs and aromatic extracts thereof;

“third country” means a country which is not a relevant EEA State;

“The Wild Game Meat Regulations” means the Wild Game Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995(8);

“wrapping”, in relation to minced meat or meat preparations, means the placing of such products in material which comes into direct contact with them, as well as the material itself.

(2) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in these Regulations to a numbered regulation or Schedule shall be construed as a reference to the regulation or Schedule bearing that number in these Regulations.

Exemptions

3.  These Regulations shall not apply to—

(a)premises producing or storing minced meat and meat preparations exclusively for direct sale in the United Kingdom to the final consumer from those premises or from a sales point adjacent to those premises;

(b)the production of mechanically recovered meat; or

(c)the production or sale of minced meat intended to be used as a raw material for the production of sausage meat destined for inclusion in a meat product.