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FOOD REGULATIONS 2002 (2002 NO 10)
Australian Capital Territory
The Food Act 2001 (Act) section 152 provides that
regulations may be drafted in certain circumstances, particularly in relation to
clarifying the intent or function of a section or part of the Act.
In
early 2001 an ACT-specific Regulation Impact Assessment was undertaken on
proposed amendment’s to the Food Act 1992. The Assessment, which
was undertaken in consultation with the ACT food industry, considered those
issues covered within the Food Act 2001 and the Food Regulations
2002. The Assessment found that:
“The proposed outcome should
maintain, or possibly enhance, the already high [food safety] standards in force
in the ACT and have minimal disruptive effect on the operation of food
businesses...[because]...the proposals do not involve major departures from the
status quo and basically maintain the existing balance between public health
requirements and requirements for business.”
Regulations 1 & 2 are formal requirements of all regulations, specifying
the title of the regulations and the commencement date.
Regulation 3 − Excluded reticulated water systems
As
‘water’ falls within the definition of ‘food’, this
regulation exempts certain reticulated water systems from certain sections of
the Act, specifically those relating to:
• offences for the handling of
food or false description of food;
• the issuing of improvement notices
and prohibition orders; and
• the notification and registration of
food businesses.
The Act already exempts operators regulated under the
Utilities Act 2000 from these requirements, however, certain other
operators are not regulated under the Utilities Act 2000. The operators
of systems specified in the regulations are already regulated via the
‘insanitary conditions’ part of the Public Health Act 1997
(Part 4). Additionally, they will still have to supply safe and suitable water,
as required by the Food Act 2001.
Businesses which are defined as primary food production are exempt from parts
of the
Food Act 2001 because they are not considered to be food
businesses.
This regulation includes the following food production
activities within the meaning of ‘food business’: dairy farming and
milk processing, producing hen eggs commercially, producing wine and
slaughtering livestock. These businesses were regulated under the previous Food
Act (included within the meaning of ‘food business’). The new
definition of ‘primary food production’ (section 11 of the Food
Act 2001) means that they would be exempt from the Registration, Improvement
Notice and Prohibition Order provisions of the Food Act 2001. Within
other jurisdictions, these businesses are regulated by primary industry
legislation, which does not exist in the ACT. This regulation ensures that the
above specified businesses are treated the same as other food businesses.
This regulation exempts certain businesses from the requirement to be
registered. This exemption is similar to the one which operated under the
previous Food Act and applies to businesses which are considered to represent a
very low risk to the public. While exempt from registration, these businesses
will still need to produce safe and suitable food, and notify the department
that they are operating (as required under the national Food Safety
Standards, adopted as part of the Food Standards Code). The primary
differences between notification and registration are
that:
• notification does not require a food business to have a safety
assessment prior to its operation,
• there is no renewal of
notification,
• there is no fee for notification,
and
• notification does not require businesses to determine their
priority classification (high-risk, medium-risk or low-risk).
This regulation adopts the Food Standards Code under Section 152 of
the
Food Act 2001. The Food Standards Code was adopted under
the previous Food Act and is a core component of the 2000 Intergovernmental
Agreement on Food Regulation.
This regulation defines the term ‘appropriate enforcement
agency’, which appears in Section 90 (2) of the Food Act 2001 and
also within Chapter 3 of the Food Standards Code. Appropriate
enforcement agency is the agency which enforces the Food Act 2001. This
agency falls within the responsibility of the office of the chief health
officer.
The Food Act 2001 provides for the operation of the infringement
notice system (on-the-spot fines). This regulations prescribes the types of
offences for which an infringement notice may be served and also their
associated penalty.
This regulation prescribes offences under certain sections of the Act as infringement notice offences. These offences are detailed in schedule 1, column 2 of the regulations. The proposed infringement notice offences relate to non-compliance with the Food Standards Code (including the Food Safety Standards) and less serious offences relating to the handling and sale of unsafe or unsuitable food.
This regulation prescribes penalties associated with infringement notice offences. These penalties are set at either $400 or $500, depending on offences. The penalties are detailed in schedule 1, column 4 of the regulations.
This regulation prescribes the amount payable by a person for the cost of
serving a reminder notice for an infringement notice offence determined under
subsection 109 (3) of the Act, served under Section 119 (Reminder notices) of
the Act. The cost of serving a reminder notice for an infringement notice
offence is $34 (the same cost applies to all similar reminder notices issued
under ACT legislation).
This regulation provides that the infringement notice specifies identifying
particulars of the person to whom an infringement notice is served.
This regulation provides for the identification of the authorised officer (the officer’s name is sufficient to meet the requirement of the Act) who served the infringement notice.
This regulation provides that each provision of the food standards code that
the person has contravened is mentioned in the infringement notice.
This regulation provides for the identification of the authorised officer
(the officer’s name is sufficient to meet the requirement of the Act) who
served the reminder notice for an infringement notice offence.
The Act provides that if a person disputes liability for an infringement
notice offence by giving the chief health officer a notice in accordance with
the Act, the costs of beginning the proceeding may be prescribed. This
regulation prescribes the amount payable by the person for the costs of
disputing liability for an infringement notice offence. The cost to the person
of beginning a proceeding is $200.