What UK Food Safety Act 1990 - Food Safety Requirements, Due Diligence Defence, and Enforcement requires
The Food Safety Act 1990 (UK) is the principal legislation establishing food safety requirements in the United Kingdom for food businesses. Section 8 prohibits the sale of food that fails to comply with food safety requirements, defined in Section 8(2) as food that has been rendered injurious to health, is unfit for human consumption, or is so contaminated that it would not be reasonable to expect it to be used for human consumption. Section 14 prohibits the sale to the purchaser's prejudice of food that is not of the nature, substance, or quality demanded. Section 15 prohibits descriptions, labels, advertisements, or presentations that falsely describe food or are likely to mislead as to its nature, substance, or quality. Section 21 provides the due diligence defence for all offences under the Act: a person is not guilty of an offence if they can prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence. Section 19 empowers the Secretary of State to issue Food Safety Act orders; these include the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations and the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/14), which implement EU food hygiene Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. Enforcement is carried out by local authority Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) under powers in Sections 9 to 12 of the Act including inspection, detention, and seizure of food.
Pillar: Food & Hospitality · Authority: Food Standards Agency (FSA); local authority Environmental Health Officers (EHOs); Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/16/contents
SHA-256 integrity: aa83bd352a405db293ceb55e990f73868d2061d6e47e7f21daf6ca011b97f430
Primary Citations — 7 traced to source
- Food Safety Act 1990 (UK) - Section 8 food safety requirements (injurious to health, unfit for consumption, contaminated); Section 14 nature, substance, and quality offence; Section 15 false description and misleading labelling; Section 21 due diligence defence; Sections 9-12 EHO inspection, detention, and seizure powers
- Food Safety Act 1990 Section 21 - due diligence defence: all reasonable precautions and all due diligence taken to avoid the offence; burden of proof on defendant on balance of probabilities; requires documented procedures, training, supplier controls, and testing
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