Food Safety Requirements

Section 8 of the Food Safety Act 1990 makes it an offence to sell, or offer, expose, advertise, possess for sale, or consign for sale, food that fails to comply with food safety requirements. As originally enacted in 1990, section 8(2) defined food as failing that test where 'it has been rendered injurious to health by means of any of the operations mentioned in section 7(1)', where it is unfit for human consumption, or where 'it is so contaminated (whether by extraneous matter or otherwise) that it would not be reasonable to expect it to be used for human consumption in that state'.

Since 1 January 2005, section 8(2) has been revised so that food 'fails to comply with food safety requirements if it is unsafe within the meaning of Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002'. Article 14 provides that food shall not be placed on the market if it is unsafe, and that food 'shall be deemed to be unsafe if it is considered to be: (a) injurious to health; (b) unfit for human consumption', with regard had to normal conditions of use and to the information available to the consumer. Any food derived from an animal slaughtered other than in a licensed slaughterhouse (or, in England and Wales, in a knacker's yard) is also automatically deemed unfit for human consumption under section 8(4).