EU legislation
Commission Regulation (EU) No 1079/2013 (OJ L292, p10, 01/11/2013) of 31 October 2013 laying down transitional measures for the application of Regulations (EC) No 853/2004 and (EC) No 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council
National legislation
European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 432 of 2009)
Amended by:
- European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) (Amendment)Regulations 2010 ( S.I. No. 312 of 2010)
- European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (S.I. No. 164 of 2012)
- European Communities (Food and Feed Hygiene) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2012 (S.I. No 362 of 2012)
General provisions
The entry into application on 1 January 2006 of Regulations (EC) No 852/2004,(EC) No 853/2004, (EC) No 854/2004 and (EC) No 882/2004 entailed some changes to the rules and procedures followed by food operators and the competent authorities. The application of some of these measures with immediate effect from 1st January 2006 would have presented practical difficulties in some cases. A period of time was granted to allow a smooth transition to the full implementation of the new rules and procedures and a transitional period of four years ending on 31 December 2009 was established by Regulation (EC) No 2076/2005.
Following discussions at EU level, it was agreed that certain transitional arrangements provided for in Regulation (EC) No 2076/2005 should be maintained pending the completion of a review of the food hygiene package. Regulation (EC) No 1162/2009 was introduced and it set out transitional measures for the implementation of Regulations (EC) No 853/2004, (EC) No 854/2004 and (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council for a transitional period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2013.
The EU report and review includes experiences on the transitional measures laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1162/2009 and it was agreed that more time is needed to finalise the impact assessment before launching the ordinary procedure for the review. Therefore Commission Regulation (EU) No 1079/2013 makes provision for a further transitional period during which certain transitional measures currently laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1162/2009 will continue to apply. This transitional period will run from the 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2016.
It includes transitional measures for :
- Direct supply of small quantities of meat from poultry and lagomorphs
- Health import conditions regarding imports of food of animal origin for which no harmonised public health import conditions have been established and for imports of food containing both products of plant origin and processed products of animal origin
- Procedures concerning imports of products of animal origin
Transitional measures regarding the labelling of minced meat which were contained in Regulation (EC) No 1162/2009 are now in Annex VI of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to the consumer.