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This Statutory Rule is being issued free of charge to all known recipients Statutory Rule 2005 No. 35 which contained an error.

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

2005 No. 35

FOOD

The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Made

10th February 2005

Coming into operation

14th March 2005

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety(1), being a Department designated(2) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(3) in relation to the common agricultural policy of the European Community, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the said section 2(2) and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, and after consultation as required by Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety(4); hereby makes the following Regulations;

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005, and shall come into operation on 14th March 2005.

2.  The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(5) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Amendments to the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995

3.—(1) The Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995(6) are amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3).

(2) For paragraph (2)(b) of regulation 13 (general conditions) there shall be substituted the following –

(b)poultry meat which –

(i)has not been eviscerated or has been obtained from the body of any bird which has not been eviscerated, or

(ii)has been treated with an agent used specifically to promote water retention or has been obtained in technologically similar conditions and is likely as a result to present the same risk; or.

(3) For paragraph (9) of regulation 13 there shall be substituted the following paragraph –

(9) Paragraph (2)(b)(i) shall not apply to partially eviscerated poultry (“effilé”)..

Consequential amendment

4.  In the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(7) in Schedule 2 (Regulations relevant to intra-Community trade) there shall be inserted at the end of paragraph 4

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 10th February 2005.

L.S.

Noel McCann

A senior officer of the

Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations).

1.  These Regulations further amend the Poultry Meat, Farmed Game Bird Meat and Rabbit Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. 1995 No. 396, as already amended) and implement that part of Article 5.1(b) of Council Directive 71/118/EEC on health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of fresh poultrymeat (a consolidated text of which is annexed to Council Directive 92/116/EEC [O.J. No. L62, 15.3.93, p. 1]) that prohibits poultrymeat from being placed on the market for human consumption if it has been treated with water retention agents or obtained under technologically similar conditions and likely as a result to present the same risk.

2.  The above prohibition is implemented by making an appropriate amendment to regulation 13(2) of S.R. 1995 No. 396 (regulation 3(2)).

3.  These Regulations also make consequential changes to regulation 13(9) of S.R. 1995 No. 396 (regulation 3(3)) and to Schedule 2 to the Products of Animal Origin (Import and Export) Regulations (N.I.) 1998 (S.R. 1998 No. 45) (regulation 4).

(1)

Formerly the Department of Health and Social Services see S.I. 1999/283 (N.I. 1) Article 3(6)

(2)

S.I. 2000/2812

(4)

O.J. No. L31, 1.2.2002, p. 1. That Regulation was last amended by Regulation (EC) No. 1642/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L245, 29.9.2003, p. 4)

(6)

S.R. 1995 No. 396; relevant amending instruments are S.R. 2000 Nos. 78 and 191

(7)

S.R. 1998 No. 45; the relevant amending Regulations are S.R. 2000 Nos. 191 and 287 and S.R. 2001 No. 42