Statutory Instruments
1998 No. 2538

FOOD
The Spreadable Fats (Marketing Standards) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1998

Made
13th October 1998

Laid before Parliament
20th October 1998

Coming into force
10th November 1998

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Wales, acting jointly, in relation to England and Wales, and the Secretary of State for Scotland in relation to Scotland, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by sections 6(4), 16(1), 17(2), 26(1) and (3) and 48(1) of the Food Safety Act 1990(1) and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, after consultation in accordance with section 48(4) of that Act with such organisations as appear to them to be representative of interests likely to be substantially affected by the Regulations, hereby make the following Regulations:

Title, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Spreadable Fats (Marketing Standards) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1998 and shall come into force on 10th November 1998.

(2) In these Regulations “the principal Regulations” means the Spreadable Fats (Marketing Standards) Regulations 1995(2).

Amendment of the principal Regulations

2.  The principal Regulations shall be amended in accordance with regulations 3 and 4 below.

3.  In regulation 2(1) (interpretation), in the definition of “the Commission Regulation”, there shall be substituted for the words “and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2181/97(3)” the words “, Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2181/97, Commission Regulation (EC) No. 623/98(4) and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1298/98(5)”.

4.  In Schedule 1 (Community provisions), in paragraph 2, there shall be substituted in column 3 (subject matter) for the existing entry the following entry–

“Restrictions on use of the designation “butter” for composite products”.

Jeff Rooker
Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
13th October 1998

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health

Tessa Jowell
Minister of State for Public Health,
Department of Health
12th October 1998

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Wales

Jon Owen Jones
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Welsh Office
13th October 1998

Sam Galbraith
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office
9th October 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations, which apply to Great Britain, amend the Spreadable Fats (Marketing Standards) Regulations 1995, as amended. The Regulations make provision for the enforcement and execution of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 623/98 and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1298/98, both amending Regulation (EC) No. 577/97 laying down certain detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No. 2991/94 laying down standards for spreadable fats and of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1898/87 on the protection of designations used in the marketing of milk and milk products.
Regulation 623/98 substitutes new rules restricting use of the designation “butter” for composite products containing butter. There is a transitional provision in Article 5 of Regulation 577/97.
Regulation 1298/98 postpones until 1st January 1999 the date from which the specified procedure for verifying the declared fat content of spreadable fats is to apply.
No regulatory impact assessment has been prepared in relation to these Regulations.


(1)
1990 c. 16; “the Ministers” is defined in section 4(1) of the Act; section 6(4)(a) of the Act was amended by the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 (c. 40), Schedule 9, paragraph 6.

(2)
S.I. 1995/3116, amended by S.I. 1998/452.

(3)
OJ No. L299, 4.11.97, p. 1.

(4)
OJ No. L85, 20.3.98, p. 3.

(5)
OJ No. L180, 24.6.98, p. 5.