Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, supersede the Eggs (Marketing Standards) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987, as amended, and make provision for the enforcement and execution of specified Community Regulations which relate to marketing standards for shell eggs and to the production and marketing of eggs for hatching and of farmyard poultry chicks.

The Regulations update the list of Community Regulations which was set out in the Schedule to the 1987 Regulations. The Regulations also implement the public health conditions in relation to the sale of shell eggs and to the use of eggs in catering kitchens laid down by Council Decision 94/371/EC (O.J.No. L168, 2.7.94, p.34).

The Regulations—

(a)

implement the public health conditions laid down by Council Decision 94/371/EC (regulation 3);

(b)

designate the authorities who are to enforce the Community provisions (regulation 4);

(c)

give certain authorised officers powers of entry inspection, sampling and direction for the purposes of enforcing those provisions (regulation 5);

(d)

give the Department of Agriculture power to require specified persons to keep records and supply information (regulation 6);

(e)

prescribe the form of the official mark which may be used under the Community provisions (regulation 7);

(f)

create offences and prescribe penalties (regulation 8);

(g)

provide that descriptions and marks applied in pursuance of a Community provision shall not be trade descriptions under the Trade Description Act 1968 (regulation 9);

(h)

apply various provisions of the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 (regulation 10); and

(i)

revoke the Eggs (Marketing Standards) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 and the Eggs (Marketing Standards) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1991 (regulation 11).