Dear daisy789-ga
The processing, manufacture and selling of food in the UK is the
subject of complex legislation, statutory instruments and EU
directives. I shall explain in basic terms the regulatory requirements
pertaining to dating food and you will have to refer to the actually
legislation for its ?finer points?. The policing of the legislation a
little more straight forward.
LEGISLATION
First the legislation. The main act is The Food Safety Act 1990.
The main offences under the Food Safety Act are:
selling, or possessing for sale, food which does not comply with food safety
requirements;
rendering food injurious to health;
selling, to the purchaser's prejudice, food which is not of the nature
or substance or quality demanded; and falsely or misleadingly
describing or presenting food;
In addition, food must not be rendered injurious to health nor be
unfit be so contaminated - whether by extraneous matter or otherwise ?
that it would be unreasonable to expect it to be eaten.
For most offences a Crown Court may impose a prison sentence of up to
two years and/or unlimited fines.
Magistrates' Courts generally may impose a fine of up to £5,000 and a
prison sentence of up to six months.
For the most serious offences Magistrates' Courts may impose a maximum
fine of £20,000.
This from a guide which appears at
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/foodlawguidebranch/foodlawguidech01/
and a PDF file
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fsaactandyou.pdf
The Act is available at
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900016_en_1.htm
The Food Standards Act 1999 amended some of the sections 1990 Act.
This is available at
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1999/19990028.htm
The next relevant legislation is the The Food Labelling Regulations
1996 which was amended by The Food Labelling Directive (2000/13/EEC)
The Food Standards Agency carries some information on the labelling provisions.
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/foodindustry/guidancenotes/labelregsguidance/usebydateguid
The Directive requires the date of minimum durability, from the
microbiological point of view, to be labelled on the food. This is
known as the "USE BY" date.
At its simplest this legislation states the following:
"USE BY" labels must appear on prepacked foods which are highly
perishable and should be kept at low temperatures to maintain their
safety to eat (eg meat and dairy products). It is an offence to offer
for sale (i.e. on display) an item where the "use by" date has
expired.
"BEST BEFORE" labels are to be used on all other prepacked food
products (eg tinned, frozen products)
No offence is committed if the food is sold past its "BEST BEFORE"
date providing it is fit to eat and its quality has not deteriorated.
However, if it unfit or of inferior quality prosecution could result
under the Food Safety Act 1990
It is an offence to alter "USE BY" or "BEST BEFORE" dates and any
person found to have altered dates may be prosecuted.
For each and every of these offences the maximum fine is £5000.
The Food Labelling Regulations 1996 available at
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1996/Uksi_19961499_en_1.htm
1999 amendments
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1999/19991483.htm
Directive 2000/13 can be found at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/fl/fl01_en.pdf.
Consolidated version of the Directive at:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/2000/en_2000L0013_do_001.pdf.
ENFORCEMENT
There are two main agencies responsible for food in the UK.
The Food Standards Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food.
The most relevant body for this question is the Food Standards Agency.
"The Food Standards Agency is an independent food safety watchdog set
up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to protect the public's health and
consumer interests in relation to food."
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk
If you visit their site you will see they cover all aspects of food
including production, manufacture, hygiene, safety, and enforcement.
Click on ?enforcement? and you will see they are responsible for
issuing hazard warnings, auditing local councils and enforcement. This
enforcement is mainly on issues requiring a national approach. Local
Government bodies are responsible for day to day local enforcement of
the supermarket and ?corner shop?.
At the Local Government level, two types of officials are involved -
Environmental Health Officers, and Trading Standards Officers. Some
authorities keep the officials in separate departments, while other
councils place them in one department.
Environmental Health Officers have training in hygiene and
microbiological problems. They would deal with the hygienic operation
of food businesses.
Trading Standards Officers deal with advertising, labelling and safety testing.
All councils conduct regular inspections of food outlets and all rely
on the public notifying of any possible breaches of food legislation.
How effective they are is a matter for debate as council budgets are
always under pressure. The Food Standards Agency are required to
conduct audits of councils and their enforcement of the legislation.
If you go to their site using the below link you can access audit
reports from councils across the UK in which they describe their
operations and effectiveness.
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/enforcement/auditscheme/auditreports/
Below are a number of news articles on recent prosecutions under the
legislation. These involved the larger supermarkets as well as the
?corner shop?. Use the links in the search strategy for additional
cases.
Tescos fined £17000 in Oct 2003
http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0150swarksnews/content_objectid=13467638_method=full_siteid=50003_headline=-Tesco-fined-for-out-of-date-food-name_page.html
Shopkeeper prosecuted for four offences under the Food Labelling
Regulations Act 1996 following a complaint by customer
http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0150swarksnews/content_objectid=13620174_method=full_siteid=50003_headline=-Trader-fined-for-old-food-name_page.html
Heysham shopkeeper ordered to pay a fine and court costs totalling
£750 after contravening food safety laws.
http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/news/press_releases/2003/05/12/0005.asp
Sticker with a best before date of April 2003 had been placed over the
correct date of December 2001.
http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/news/newsstory.asp?ID=370
Somerfield and Kwiksave prosecuted
http://www.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/press/20021121.htm
Another source used in this research which may be of interest is the
School of Food Biosciences, The University of Reading, Reading - Food
Legislation, Lecture Notes
http://www.foodlaw.rdg.ac.uk/label/
Other sources
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Food+-+Use+By+and+Sell+By+dates+for+retail+outlets?opendocument
I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder
Search strategy
"food labelling" prosecution "out of date?
://www.google.com/search?q=%22food+labelling%22+prosecution+%22out+of+date%22+uk&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
"Food Labelling Regulations" "magistrates"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Food+Labelling+Regulations%22+%22magistrates%22 |
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