UK Offence Report

Condemnation of food

regulation 9 of The Preservatives in Food (Scotland) Regulations 1989

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

9 Where any food is certified by

a public analyst as being food which it is an offence against regulation

4 to sell or import into Scotland, that food may be treated for the purposes of section

9 of the Act (under which food may be seized and destroyed on the order of

a justice of the peace) as being unfit for human consumption.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 9?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Selling the goods under the Preservatives in Food (Scotland) Regulations 1989 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  2. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  3. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
23 March 1989
In force from
3 May 1989
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, which apply to Scotland only, re-enact with amendments the Preservatives in Food (Scotland) Regulations 1979, as amended, and come into force on 3rd May 1989. They implement Council Directive 64/54/EEC (O.J. No. 12, 27.1.1964, p.161/64: O.J./S.E. 1963-1964, p.99) on the approximation of the laws of Member States concerning the preservatives authorised for use in foodstuffs intended for human consumption, as last amended by Council Directive 85/585/EEC (O.J. No. L372, 31.12.85, p.43) and Council Directive 65/66/EEC (O.J. No. 22, 9.2.65, p.373/65: O.J./S.E. 1965-1966, p.25), laying down specific criteria of purity for preservatives authorised for use in foodstuffs intended for human consumption, as last amended by Council Directive 86/604/EEC (O.J. No. L352, 13.12.86, p.45). The Regulations— a specify permitted preservatives and prescribe purity criteria for those preservatives (regulation 2(1) and (2) and Schedule 1); b prohibit the sale or importation of food having in it or on it any added preservative except specified foods having in them or on them permitted preservatives within prescribed limits or as otherwise prescribed (regulation 4 and Schedule 2 and Schedule 3, paragraphs 4, 5 and 6); c within prescribed limits, permit the presence in compounded food of permitted preservatives introduced in the preparation of that food by the use of one or more foods specified in Schedule 2 (regulation 5); d prohibit the sale, the importation and the advertisement for sale, for use as an ingredient in the preparation of food, of any preservative other than a permitted preservative (regulation 6(1)); e prescribe labelling requirements for permitted preservatives when sold as such (regulation 6(2) and Schedule 3, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 6); f prohibit the sale of food specially prepared for babies or young children if it has in it or on it any added sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite (regulation 7); g make provision for the sampling and analysis of citrus fruit for the presence of biphenyl, 2-hydroxybiphenyl and sodium bi-phenyl-2-yl oxide (regulation 8 and Schedules 4, 5 and 6). The principal changes effected by the Regulations are— a the inclusion, in implementation of Directives 85/585/EEC and 86/604/EEC, of E228 potassium-bi-sulphate as a permitted preservative with specified purity criteria (regulation 2(1) and Schedule 1); and the confirmation that Community controlled wine may contain this and other preservatives to the extent authorised by any Community Regulation (regulations 2(1) and 4(11)); b the substitution for low fat spreads of fat spreads whose fat content does not exceed 70%, as a specified food permitted to contain sorbic acid (regulation 4(2) and Schedule 2); c the extension of the preservatives permitted in fruit or plants, crystallised, glace, drained (syruped) or candied peel or cut and drained (syruped) peel to include benzoic acid, hydroxybenzoates or sorbic acid and sulphur dioxide (regulation 4(3)(b) and Schedule 2); d subject to prescribed limits, the authorisation for use in prawns and shrimps in brine of the permitted preservatives, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, propyl 4-hydroxybenzoate and methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate as well as sulphur dioxide (regulation 4(3)(f) and Schedule 2); e the provision of a defence to proceedings in respect of sale or importation before 31st December 1989, of food having in it or on it ethylene oxide, where the presence of that substance is due to its use for pathogen reduction in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 79/117/EEC as amended by Council Directive 86/355/EEC (regulation 11(3)). The Nutrition Meetings Report Series No. 45A (1969) of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation may be inspected at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Main Library, 3 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HH (telephone 01-270-8419).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source