Public Health (Foods) Regulations – Section 9 (Statutory Instrument 70/1980)
S.I. 70/1980 .. in force 1 April 1978
Amended by S.I. 28/1983 .. in force 30 April 1983
Commencement [1 April 1978]
1. Citation
These Regulations may be cited as the Public Health (Foods) Regulations.
2. Interpretation
In these Regulations unless the context otherwise requires—
“adulterated” means any valuable constituent which has been in whole or in part omitted or abstracted therefrom; or any substance which has been substituted wholly or in part therefrom; or damage or inferior substance has been concealed in any manner; or any substance has been added thereto or mixed or packed therewith so as to increase its bulk or weight or reduce its quality or strength, or make it appear better or of greater value than it is; any article of food that is misbranded and does contain any added poisonous or deleterious ingredient and that otherwise contains any filler or ingredient that debases without adding food value, may not be manufactured or sold if it is branded or tagged so as not to show its contents or consists in whole or in part of any filth, dirt, putrid, or decomposed substance, or if it is otherwise unfit for food; or it has been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health; or it is, in whole or in part, the product of a diseased animal or of an animal which has died otherwise than by slaughter; or its container is composed, in whole or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render the contents injurious to health;
“advertisement” means any representation for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly the sale or disposal of any food;
“business” means the undertaking of a canteen, club, school or institution, whether carried on for profit or not;
“certificate of exemption” means, in relation to a food business, a certificate in force for the time being and granted in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations;
“catering establishment” means an establishment wherein meals, lunches, sandwiches or other refreshments are prepared for consumption elsewhere than on the premises;
“container” means any basket, pail, tray, package or receptacle of any kind, whether open or closed;
“contamination” means contamination by rodent, pest, flies, and other insects, bacteria and by odours;
“eating establishment” means any premises where meals, lunches or other foods are offered for sale to the public for immediate consumption and shall include restaurants, food serving and preparation facilities in a hotel, taverns beverage rooms, shops, eating shops, cafe lunch counters, luncheonettes, sandwich shops, dairy bars, soda fountains, ice-cream parlours and canteen but does not include temporary eating establishment;
“temporary eating establishment” means an eating establishment which operates for a period not exceeding 30 days;
“employee” means any person employed in an eating establishment who may handle food or drink in its preparation, storage or serving or who comes in contact with any utensils used in the preparation or serving of food or drink and include the proprietor or any member of his or her family so employed;
“equipment” means apparatus, furnishings and utensils used for the storage, preparation and distribution of food and drink;
“fish” means cooked and uncooked fish (including cured or smoked fish) and includes any other form of sea-food;
“food” means any living or dead animal or fish or part thereof and any other article including ice used for food or drink, for human consumption other than drugs and water; or any other article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the consumption of preparation of human food or flavouring matters and condiments for human consumption;
“food business” means any restaurant, coffee shop, cafeteria, short-order cafe, grill, luncheonette, tea room, sandwich shop, tavern, bar, cocktail lounge, night club, feeding establishment, whether public or private, or nonprofit organization or institution routinely serving or drink, a catering kitchen, canteen or similar place in which food or drink is prepared for sale or for service on the premises or elsewhere, and any other eating or drinking establishment or operation where food is served or provided for human consumption with or without charges;
“food handling establishment” means any premises in which food is processed or otherwise prepared, packaged, manufactured, or stored;
“food premises” means any premises on or from which there is carried on any food business, and includes stalls and carts;
“food rooms” means any room in which any person engages in handling of food or in the cleaning of equipment for the purposes of a food business;
“inspector” means the public health inspector or Director of Medical Services or medical officer of health or his or her duly authorised representative, or Chief Medical Officer;
“insanitary conditions” means any conditions or circumstances that might contaminate food with dirt or filth or foreign matter that might render food injurious to the health of person consuming it;
“label” means (a) an inspection legend; (b) the true name of the product; (c) a list of ingredients; and (d) accurate statement of the quantity of contents; (e) the name and place of business of the manufacturer or packer;
“meat” means the flesh (including edible offal and fat) of cattle, swine, sheep, rabbits, poultry and goat, which are intended for human consumption, and includes bacon and ham;
“open food” means food not contained in containers and (so closed), as to exclude all risk of contamination;
“poultry processing plant” means any food establishment or portion thereof in which poultry is killed, dressed, processed or stored for sale, or are offered for sale alive;
“package” means a building and any forecourt, yard or place of storage used in connection with a building;
“preparation” in relation to food includes manufacture and any form of treatment, and “prepared” shall be construed accordingly;
“proprietor” means the person in whose name an eating establishment, a temporary eating establishment, or a catering establishment is being operated, or the person keeping or managing same;
“sell” means offer for sale, expose for sale;
“single service utensils” means cups, containers, lids, or closures plates, knives, forks, spoons, stirrers, paddles, straws, place mats, napkins, doilies, wrapping materials, and all similar articles which are constructed wholly or in part from paper, paperboard, moulded pulp, foil, wood, plastic, synthetic, or other readily destructible materials, and which are intended by the manufacturers and generally recognised as for one usage only, then to be discarded;
“stall” means any stand, tent or mobile canteen;
“suitable lighted” when used in respect to kitchen and food preparation rooms means any intensity of light equal to at least 50 feet candles on working surfaces, or at a distance of 30 inches from the floor, and in storage and refrigeration areas at least 10 feet candles;
“utensils” mean any kitchenware, table-ware, glassware cutlery utensils, containers or other equipment with which food or drink comes in contact during storage preparation, distribution or serving.