Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 1987
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
1987 No. 1523
FOOD
The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 1987
Made 20th August 1987
Laid before Parliament 11th September 1987
Coming into force 2nd October 1987
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State being Ministers designated1for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 19722in relation to materials and articles in contact with food or drink or intended for such contact, acting jointly, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by the said section 2(2) and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following Regulations:
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Title, commencement, extent and revocations
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 1987 and shall come into force on 2nd October 1987.
(2) These Regulations shall not extend to Northern Ireland.
(3) The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 19783, the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations 19804and the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (Amendment) Regulations 19825are hereby revoked.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
“authorised officer” means an officer of an enforcement authority authorised by that authority in writing, either generally or specifically, to act in matters of any specified kind or in any specified matter;
“business” includes the undertaking of a canteen, club, school, hospital or institution, whether carried on for profit or not, and any undertaking or activity carried on by a public or local authority;
“enforcement authority” means—
(a) in England and in Wales
(i) a food and drugs authority, as defined in section 71 of the Food Act 19846, in its area, and
(ii) a port health authority in relation to imported materials and articles which are in, or unloaded in, a port health district, or the local authority in whose district the materials and articles are deposited for customs examination in relation to imported materials and articles unloaded elsewhere than in a port health district, and
(b) in Scotland a district or islands council within the meaning of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 19737;
“food” means food intended for human consumption and includes drink, water, natural mineral water, chewing gum and other products of a like nature and use, and articles and substances used as ingredients in the preparation of food, but does not include—
(a) live animals or birds,
(b) fodder or feedingstuffs for animals, birds or fish, or
(c) articles or substances used only as drugs;
“import” means import in the course of a business;
“preparation” in relation to food, includes manufacture and any form of treatment or process;
“public analyst”—
(a) in England and in Wales has the meaning assigned to it by section 76 of the Food Act 1984, and
(b) in Scotland has the meaning assigned to it by section 27 of the Food and Drugs (Scotland) Act 19568;
“regenerated cellulose film” means a thin sheet material obtained from refined cellulose derived from unrecycled wood or cotton, with or without the addition of suitable substances, either in the mass or on one or both surfaces;
“registered trade mark” means a trade mark which has effect in any member state of the European Economic Community and is duly registered in accordance with the laws of that state;
“sell” includes offer or expose for sale or have in possession for sale, and “sale” and “sold” shall be construed accordingly;
“sell by retail” means sell to a person buying otherwise than for the purpose of re-sale, but does not include selling to a caterer for the purposes of his catering business or to a manufacturer for the purposes of his manufacturing business, and “sold by retail” shall be construed accordingly;
“ship” includes any boat or craft, and for this purpose “craft” includes hovercraft.
(2) 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. The provisions of these Regulations shall not apply to—
(a) any fixed public or private water supply equipment;
(b) any substance which, being used as a covering or coating for a food, forms part of that food and may be consumed with it, including such a substance used as covering or coating for cheese rind or prepared meat products;
(c) any material or article intended for export to any place outside the United Kingdom;
(d) any material or article which is a collector’s piece of artistic, archaeological or ethnographic interest or to any other material or article of an age exceeding 100 years.
PART II
COMPOSITION AND LABELLING OF MATERIALS AND ARTICLES
Sale etc. of materials and articles
4.—(1) This regulation shall apply to materials and articles which are in their finished state and are intended to come into contact with food or which are in contact with food and are intended for that purpose.
(2) Materials and articles to which this regulation applies shall be manufactured in accordance with good manufacturing practice, that is to say in such a way that under normal or foreseeable conditions of use they do not transfer their constituents to foods with which they are, or are likely to be, in contact, in quantities which could—
(a)
(a) endanger human health or
(b)
(b) bring about a deterioration in the organoleptic characteristics of such food or an unacceptable change in its nature, substance or quality.
(3) No person shall—
(a)
(a) sell,
(b)
(b) import, or
(c)
(c) use in the course of a business in connection with the storage, preparation, packaging, selling or serving of food,
any such material or article which does not comply with this regulation.
Vinyl chloride monomer
5.—(1) Materials and articles to which regulation 4 applies and which are manufactured with vinyl chloride polymers or copolymers—
(a)
(a) shall not contain vinyl chloride monomer in a quantity exceeding 1 milligram per kilogram of the material or article as measured by the method of analysis specified in regulation 14(1); and
(b)
(b) shall be manufactured in such a way that they do not transfer to foods with which they are in contact any quantity of vinyl chloride exceeding 0.01 milligrams of vinyl chloride per kilogram of food as measured by the method of analysis specified in regulation 14(2).
(2) No person shall—
(a)
(a) sell,
(b)
(b) import, or
(c)
(c) use in the course of a business in connection with the storage, preparation, packaging, selling or serving of food,
any such material or article which does not comply with this regulation.
Regenerated cellulose film
6.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, this regulation shall apply to regenerated cellulose film which—
(a)
(a) constitutes a finished product in itself; or
(b)
(b) is a part of a finished product containing other materials;
and is intended to come into contact with food or is in contact with food and is intended for that purpose.
(2) This regulation shall not apply to—
(a)
(a) regenerated cellulose film which has a coating exceeding 50 milligrams per square decimetre of film on the side intended to come into contact with food;
(b)
(b) synthetic casings of regenerated cellulose.
(3) No regenerated cellulose film to which this regulation applies shall be manufactured with any substance or group of substances other than the substances named or described in Schedule 1—
(a)
(a) in column 1 of Part I, in the case of uncoated film; or
(b)
(b) in column 1 of Part II, in the case of coated film;
and used in accordance with the conditions and restrictions specified in the corresponding entry in column 2 of the appropriate Part of Schedule 1 as read with footnotes 1 and 2 to that Schedule.
(4) Regenerated cellulose film to which this regulation applies shall be manufactured in such a way that it does not transfer any adhesive or colourant to food in any detectable quantity.
(5) Coated regenerated cellulose film to which this regulation applies shall be manufactured in such a way that it does not transfer bis(2-hydroxyethyl) ether, ethanediol or both these substances to food in a quantity exceeding 50 milligrams per kilogram of food.
(6) No person shall—
(a)
(a) sell,
(b)
(b) import, or
(c)
(c) use in the course of a business in connection with the storage, preparation, packaging, selling or serving of food,
any such regenerated cellulose film which does not comply with this regulation.
(7) No person shall use in the course of a business in connection with the storage, preparation, packaging, selling or serving of food—
(a)
(a) containing water physically free at the surface, any coated regenerated cellulose film to which this regulation applies and which contains bis(2-hydroxyethyl) ether, ethanediol or both these substances;
(b)
(b) any regenerated cellulose film to which this regulation applies in such a way that any printed surface of that regenerated cellulose film comes into contact with the food.
Labelling etc. of materials and articles sold by retail
7.—(1) The following particulars shall be shown with any material or article which, being in its finished state, is intended to come into contact with food but is not already in contact with food when such material or article is sold by retail—
(a)
(a) unless the material or article is by its nature clearly intended to come into contact with food—
(i) the description “for food use”, or
(ii) a specific indication of the particular use for which the material or article is intended, or
(iii) the symbol that appears in Schedule 2,
(b)
(b) any special conditions to be observed...
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