Consumer Law Module CST 107: Food Safety

Consumer Law ModuleCST 107: Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order, 1991

• Learning Objective: Understand the main food safety and consumer protection afforded by the Food Safety (NI) Order, 1991.
• Recap of Week 7:
  • Information requirements for distance sales
  • Consequences of missing information
  • Consumer cooling-off period
• Food Safety Legislation:
  • Protects consumers from illness and harm from unsafe food
• Food Safety Law:
  • Safe Food: free from contamination, fit for consumption
  • Hygiene: Food premises, equipment, personnel, practices (including temperature control), control of food poisoning
  • Composition, amount and labeling of food
• Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order, 1991:
  • Framework for food legislation in Northern Ireland
  • Creates offences related to safety, quality, and labeling of food
  • Applies to all types of food businesses
• Definition of Food:
  • Any substance or product (processed, partially processed, or unprocessed) intended for human ingestion.
  • Includes drink, chewing gum.

Food Safety (NI) Order, 1991 continued

• Food Offences: Rendering food injurious to human health, food must be of the correct nature/substance/quality, food must not be falsely described or presented.
• Food Business Responsibilities: Ensure food is not harmful, maintain the nature, substance, and quality expected by consumers, ensure food labeling is not false or misleading.

Rendering Food Harmful to Health

• Making food harmful:
  • Adding/using substances in food prep
  • Removing constituent parts
  • Subjecting to other processes (whether deliberate or not)

Food Must Be of the Nature/Substance/Quality Demanded by the Consumer

• "Nature": Food sold as one thing but is actually another (eg) haddock sold as cod.
• "Substance": Food contains foreign bodies (eg insects), residues, inadequate composition (eg milk protein).
• "Quality": Commercial quality issues (eg) stale cake.

Food Must Not Be Falsely Described or Presented

• Offences: Statements are untrue or pictures are misleading; correct but misleading emphasis on details for consumers; misleading presentation to other businesses

Penalties for Non-Compliance

• Prohibition from using part of the business
• Fines and legal costs
• Prison sentence
• Closure of the business
• Prohibition from running a food business
• Criminal record. (Maximum penalties may vary)

Due Diligence

• Defence under Food Safety (NI) Order:
• Balance consumer protection and company rights
• Company proves it took all reasonable precautions
• Must demonstrate they did everything within power to safeguard consumer health.

Burden of Proof

• Burden on the accused company
• Needs only to persuade the court they exercised due diligence.

Accurate Records

• Evidence of due diligence: HACCP, monitoring records, pest control, cleaning schedules, alternative defences(someone else's fault, other person)

Alternative Defences

• Offence through another person's act or default, cases related to advertisements (if no suspicion of any offence)

Enforcing the Order

• Authorised officers can: inspect food, enter premises unannounced, detain suspect food, apply to Justice of the Peace, and require information.

Notices

• Enforcement Officers Issues: Improvement Notices, Prohibition orders, Emergency Prohibition Notices
• Summary: Food Safety(NI) Order (1991) requires compliance with food hygiene regulations, environmental health officers have wide-ranging control powers, and it is everybody’s responsibility.