Meat Products (Hygiene) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Duties of occupier of establishment

13.—(1) The occupier of an establishment shall take all necessary measures to ensure that in that establishment, these Regulations are complied with at all stages in the processes of production, storage or rewrapping of meat products and other products of animal origin, and shall, in particular, carry out his own checks to ensure—

(a)that critical points in those processes are identified and acceptable to the enforcement authority;

(b)methods which are acceptable to the appropriate enforcement authority for monitoring and controlling such critical points are devised and followed;

(c)if samples are taken for the purpose of checking either cleaning and disinfection or compliance with the standards prescribed in paragraph 1 of Section A in Part II of Schedule 1, that they are analysed or examined as appropriate in a laboratory acceptable to the enforcement authority;

(d)that as far as is reasonable and practicable, a record of compliance with sub-paragraphs (a) to (c) is kept in permanent form and that the record is made available on request to an authorised officer of any enforcement authority;

(e)that health marking is controlled and carried out properly;

(f)that the appropriate enforcement authority is notified immediately when a laboratory examination of samples, or any other information at the occupier’s disposal, reveals a health risk;

(g)in the event of an imminent health risk arising in respect of any product, that product, and any other products obtained under technologically similar conditions and likely to present a similar degree of risk, are withdrawn from the market; and

(h)any quantity of the products so withdrawn is held under the supervision and control of the appropriate enforcement authority until it is destroyed, used for purposes other than human consumption, or, with the agreement of the enforcement authority, reprocessed in a manner appropriate to ensure it is safe for human consumption.

(2) The occupier of an establishment to which paragraph (1) relates shall ensure that workers at the establishment are given such instruction and training in hygiene matters as is appropriate to any tasks undertaken by them.

(3) Any record required to be kept in pursuance of paragraph (1)(d) shall be kept for a period of at least 2 years from the date of production of the products to which it relates or, in the case of meat products which cannot be stored at an ambient temperature, for a period of six months after the expiry of the minimum durability date for the product.