UK Offence Report

Condemnation of food

regulation 18 of The Food Additives, Flavourings, Enzymes and Extraction Solvents (England) Regulations 2013

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

18 Where any food is certified by

a food analyst as being food which it is an offence to place on the market, that food shall be treated for the purposes of section

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

a justice of the peace) as failing to comply with food safety requirements.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 18?

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 Food Additives, Flavourings, Enzymes and Extraction Solvents (England) Regulations 2013 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
4 September 2013
In force from
31 October 2013
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 England only, provide for the execution and enforcement of the following EU Regulations — Regulation (EC) No 2065/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on smoke flavourings used or intended for use in or on foods (OJ No. L309, 26.11.2003, p.1); Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food enzymes (OJ No. L354, 31.12.2008, p.7); Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives (OJ No. L354, 31.12.2008, p.16); Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on flavourings and certain food ingredients with flavouring properties for use in and on foods (OJ No. L354, 31.12.2008, p.34). These Regulations also implement Directive 2009/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States on extraction solvents used in the production of foodstuffs and food ingredients (OJ No. L141, 6.6.2009, p.3). These Regulations revoke, in whole or in part, the following Regulations — The Extraction Solvents in Food Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/1658); The Smoke Flavourings (England) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/464); The Food (Suspension of the Use of E128 Red 2G Food Colour) (England) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/2266); The Food Enzymes Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/3235); The Food Additives (England) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/3238); The Flavourings in Food (England) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/2817). These Regulations, in Part 2, provide that it is an offence, subject to any applicable transitional arrangements, to contravene or to use or place on the market a product that contravenes specified requirements of — Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 relating to food additives (regulation 3 and Table 1 of Schedule 1); Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 relating to food flavourings and foods with flavouring properties (regulation 4 and Table 1 of Schedule 2); Regulation (EC) No 2065/2003 relating to smoke flavourings (regulation 5 and Table 1 of Schedule 3); and Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 relating to food enzymes (regulation 6 and Table 1 of Schedule 4). These Regulations also provide in Part 2 that in the case of certain types of non-compliance, relating to labelling, an authorised officer of an enforcement authority may serve a compliance notice requiring specified steps to be taken, failing which an offence will be committed (regulation 7 and Table 2 of Schedules 1 to 4). A person served with a compliance notice may appeal against it to a magistrates court (regulation 8). Part 3 of these Regulations implement Directive 2009/32/EC relating to extraction solvents, in particular by — specifying the circumstances where the controls on extraction solvents do not apply (regulation 10); defining what constitutes a permitted extraction solvent (regulation 11); prohibiting any person from using an extraction solvent other than a permitted extraction solvent, as defined, in the production of food (regulation 12); prohibiting any person from placing on the market an extraction solvent that is not a permitted extraction solvent or which is not accompanied by certain information on the packaging, container or label (regulations 13 and 14). These Regulations in Part 4 — designate the Food Standards Agency as the competent authority for the purposes of applications for authorisation of a smoke flavouring (regulation 15); assign the duty of enforcing these Regulations to food authorities (regulation 16); provide for the maximum penalty to which a person may be liable on conviction for an offence under these Regulations (regulation 17); provide that, where food is certified as being food which it is an offence to place on the market, the food will be treated for the purposes of section 9 of the Food Safety Act 1990 as failing to comply with food safety requirements (regulation 18); and apply, with certain modifications, various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990 for the purposes of these Regulations (regulation 19). These Regulations in Part 5 — make a minor amendment to the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (regulation 20); revoke certain instruments in whole or in part (regulation 21 and Schedule 5); and provide for the Food Standards Agency to carry out a review of the operation and effect of these Regulations within 5 years of them coming into force (regulation 22). A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on business or on the public or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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