S.I. No. 79/2020 - European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations 2020

• (k) fails to assist or cooperate with an authorised officer, or delegated body, in accordance with Article 15(2) of the Official Controls Regulation, or

• (l) removes, damages or defaces a notice contrary to Regulation 31(4).

• (4) In a prosecution for an offence under this Regulation the onus of proving that a fee or charge pursuant to Regulation 4(2) or a charge pursuant to Regulation 22(2) has been paid lies on the defendant.

• (5) A person who forges, or utters knowing it to be forged, a certificate of analysis or other document purporting to be issued, granted or given under these Regulations, orfood legislation or required for the purposes of these Regulations, orfood legislation (hereafter referred to as “a forged document”), is guilty of an offence.

• (6) A person who alters with intent to defraud or deceive, or utters knowing it to be so altered, a certificate of analysis or other document issued, granted or given under these Regulations or food legislation or required for the purposes of these Regulations orfood legislation (hereafter referred to as “an altered document”), is guilty of an offence.

• (7) A person who, without lawful authority, has in his or her possession a forged document or an altered document, knowing it to be false or altered document as the case may be, is guilty of an offence.

• (8) A person who, with the intent to defraud or deceive—

• (a) tampers with any food or relevant thing with the result that a sample taken pursuant to these Regulations or food legislation does not correctly represent the food or relevant thing sampled, or

• (b) tampers or interferes with any sample taken under these Regulations or food legislation,

is guilty of an offence.

• (9) A person who falsely represents himself or herself to be an authorised officer, is guilty of an offence.

• (10) For the purposes of these Regulations every contravention of a Regulation shall be deemed a separate contravention and every contravention of a paragraph or a subparagraph shall also be deemed to be a separate contravention and shall carry the same penalty as for a single contravention of any Regulation.

Bodies corporate

33.Where a body corporate, or a person acting on behalf of a body corporate, commits an offence under these Regulations and the offence is committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or is attributable to any neglect or default on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or any other officer of such body, or a person purporting to act in any such capacity, such person is also guilty of an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

Prosecution of offences

• (a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or at the discretion of the Court to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both, or

• (b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €500,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or both.

• (2) Where a person is convicted of an offence under these Regulations the court shall, unless it is satisfied that there are special and substantial reasons for not so doing, order the person to pay to the Authority or the official agency, as the case may be, the costs and expenses, measured by the court, incurred by the Authority or the official agency in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence, including costs and expenses incurred in the taking of samples, the carrying out of tests, examinations and analyses and in respect of the remuneration and other expenses of employees, consultants and advisors engaged by the Authority or the official agency.

• (3) An order for costs and expenses under paragraph (2) is in addition to, and not instead of, any fine or penalty the court may impose under paragraph (1).

• (4) Notwithstanding section 57 of the Act of 1998, an offence under these Regulations may be prosecuted summarily by the Authority, or the official agency.

PART 5 AMENDMENT AND REVOCATIONS

Amendment of Act of 1998

• “(f) by sending it by means of electronic mail to a device or facility for the reception of electronic mail where such an electronic mail address has been furnished by the person, but only if the sender’s facility for the reception of electronic mail generates a message confirming a receipt of the electronic mail confirming successful transmission of the notice.”.

Revocations

• (a) the European Communities (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations 2010 ( S.I. No. 117 of 2010 ); and

• (b) the European Communities (Official Control of Foodstuffs) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 ( S.I. No. 344 of 2011 ).

• (2) References in other enactments to the Regulations revoked under paragraph (1) shall, where the context so admits, be construed as references to these Regulations.

Schedule 1

Regulation 16

Form of official certificate to be given by an approved examiner to an authorised officer.

European Union

(Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations 2020

Certificate of Approved Examiner

To^(1) ........................................

I, the undersigned^(2) .........................................

being an approved examiner for the purpose of the above Regulations certify that on

the .........................day of .......................... 20......

a sample marked^(3) ....................................

Date .....................................

Number .....................................

Weight or Measure ..................................

was submitted to me by you and I certify that the sample was prepared and analysed/examined by me or under my direction^(4),

and the results are as follows^(5):

and as a result I am of the opinion that:

Observations:^(6)

I further certify that the sample has undergone no change which would affect my opinion/observations expressed above.

Certified by me this ..................... day of ............................... 20.....

at^(7) .....................................

Name in BLOCK LETTERS ...............................................................

Status ...........................................................

Signature .........................................................

Official Stamp

NOTES

• (1) Insert the name and address of the person submitting the sample for analysis.

• (2) Insert description of approved examiner (e.g. Executive Analytical Chemist located at a Public Analyst’s Laboratory).

• (3) Insert particulars of marking (e.g. name, date etc.) and the weight or measure (this may be left unanswered if the sample cannot be conveniently weighed or measured or if the weight or measurement is not material to the result of analysis).

• (4) Indicate whether the approved examiner carried out the analysis himself or herself or whether it was carried out by another under the direction of the approved examiner.

• (5) Here the approved examiner should specify each result of the analysis having regard to the provisions of the relevant legislation, and he/she may also add, if required, a statement, or statements of conformity as per ISO/IEC 17025:2017 on the “General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories”.

• (6) Here the approved examiner may insert, at his or her discretion, his or her opinion whether the analysis indicates any addition, abstraction, deficiency or the presence of foreign matter or other defect and whether the composition or quality is thereby affected; any physical, chemical or other properties bearing on the composition or quality of the article; whether the article is injurious to health or unfit for human consumption; whether and in what respect a label and description relating to the sample is incorrect or misleading; and he or she may add any other observations as he or she may consider relevant.

• (7) Insert the name and address of the laboratory carrying out the analysis/examination.

Schedule 2

Regulation 28

Fixed Payment Notice

Regulation 28 of the European Union (Official Controls in relation to Food Legislation) Regulations 2020

Fixed Payment Notice Ref. No:__

Health Service Executive / Food Safety Authority of Ireland

(Delete as appropriate)

[Signature]

Authorised Officer

[Date]

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

13 March, 2020.

SIMON HARRIS,

Minister for Health.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

These Regulations give further effect to Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 of 30 September 2019, and concern official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food legislation.

These Regulations revoke the European Communities (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations 2010 and the European Communities (Official Control of Foodstuffs) (Amendment) Regulations 2011.

These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (Official Controls in relation to Food Legislation) Regulations 2020 and they come into effect on the date they were signed.

Footnotes