Introductory text

Food

Public Health

Made 29th October 2025

Laid before the Scottish Parliament 31st October 2025

Coming into force 1st October 2026

The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 6(4), 16(1)(e) and (f), 26(3) and 48(1) of the Food Safety Act 1990^f1 (“the 1990 Act”), section 52 of the Food (Scotland) Act 2015^f2 (“the 2015 Act”) and all other powers enabling them to do so.

In accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety^f3, the Scottish Ministers have consulted during the preparation, evaluation and revision of food law contained in these Regulations.

In accordance with section 48(4A)^f4 of the 1990 Act and section 50(1)(a) of the 2015 Act, the Scottish Ministers have had regard to relevant advice given by Food Standards Scotland.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: 1990 c. 16. The definition of “food” in section 1 of the 1990 Act was amended by S.I. 2004/2990 to incorporate the definition of food in Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety (“Regulation (EC) No 178/2002”). Section 6(4) was amended by paragraph 6 of schedule 9 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 (c. 40), paragraph 10(3) of schedule 5 of the Food Standards Act 1999 (c. 28) (“the 1999 Act”) and S.I. 2002/794. Section 6(4A) was inserted by paragraph 3(2) of the schedule of the 2015 Act. Section 16(1) and section 48(1) of the 1990 Act were amended by paragraph 8 of schedule 5 of the 1999 Act. Section 26(3) was amended by paragraph 1 of schedule 6 of the 1999 Act. Amendments made by schedule 5 of the 1999 Act which extend to Scotland are to be taken as pre-commencement enactments for the purposes of the Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) (the “Scotland Act”) by virtue of section 40(2) of the 1999 Act. The functions conferred on the Secretary of State were transferred to the Scottish Ministers by virtue of section 53 of the Scotland Act. S.I. 2005/849 transferred functions under the 1990 Act to the Scottish Ministers, to enable Scottish Ministers to regulate to the full extent of the definition of food incorporated by S.I. 2004/2990. S.I. 2014/1559 subsequently modified Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act, to amend the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, by amending references to “food” and to the 1990 Act, so that food is defined by reference to the definition in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002.
f2: 2015 asp 1. Section 52 of the 2015 Act provides the Scottish Ministers with a power to specify in regulations offences under food legislation as relevant offences. The definitions of “relevant offence” and “specified” in section 52 of the 2015 Act, and the definition of “food legislation” in section 57, are relevant to the exercise of these powers.
f3: EUR 2002/178, to which there are amendments, but none are relevant to these Regulations.
f4: Section 48(4A) was inserted by paragraph 21 of schedule 5 of the Food Standards Act 1999 (c. 28). Section 48(6) provides that references to the Food Standards Agency in section 48 are to be read as references to Food Standards Scotland in its application to Scotland. Section 48(6) was inserted by paragraph 3 of schedule 1 of the 2015 Act.