Food Law Code of Practice 2019

Summary

The Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) has been approved by the Minister For Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing and issued to Scottish Local Authorities in accordance with section 40(1) Food Safety Act 1990, as amended. This Code was last published in 2015 to reflect the creation of Food Standards Scotland (‘FSS’) on 1st April 2015. This 2019 revision of the Code replaces any previous versions and incorporates changes reflecting the following:

• The Local Authorities’ Better Regulation obligations under the Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice.

• Food Standards Scotland's Regulatory Strategy.

• New and modified legislation

  • The introduction of the Scottish National Database

• The creation of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit within FSS to tackle serious and / or complex fraudulent conduct and regulatory non-compliance.

The Interventions Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) 2019 has been approved by the Minister For Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing and issued to Scottish Local Authorities in accordance with section 40(1) Food Safety Act 1990, as amended. This Code incorporates the following changes:

• Introduction of the Food Law Rating System. (FLRS). The FLRS combines the rating systems for Food Hygiene and Food Standards into one Food Law Intervention scheme based upon a new Food Business performance model that will target resources on high to medium risk and non-compliant businesses.

• Alignment with Food Standards Scotland's Strategy.

• Alignment to reflect Food Standards Scotland’s Strategy to 2021 and the Scottish Government’s approach to Better Regulation as set out in the Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice.

The Interventions Code came into force across Scotland on the 26th June 2019 and supersedes certain sections of the consolidated Food Law Code of Practice 2019 (please see section 1 and Annex 4 of the Interventions Code for further information). It is part of a wider programme of work within our Regulatory Strategy to review the Food Law Code of Practices.

Practice Guidance

This practice guidance is issued by FSS to assist Food Authorities with the discharge of their statutory duty to enforce relevant food law in Scotland. It is non-statutory, complements the statutory Code of Practice, and provides general advice on approach to enforcement.

It is not nor is it intended to be legal advice. It is guidance only - it should not be relied upon or used for any other purpose. Food authorities should come to their own views on the interpretation of the law that applies to them.

Most food law operating in Scotland (and the rest of the UK) is derived from EU law. Following the end of the Implementation Period (1 January 2021), EU derived food law forms part of our domestic food law (called retained EU law). Therefore from 1 January 2021 any references to EU Regulations should be read as referring to retained EU law which is published on legislation.gov.uk.

• Food Law Code of Practice - Practice Guidance: Please note that the guidance document is out of date. Both the code and the associated guidance are currently under review. All current references to Regulation 882/2004 should be read as Retained Regulation 2019/625.
• The updated Annex 9: Approval of Establishments under Regulation 853/2004 – Template forms: These approval forms have been updated and currently sit as separate documents. These are the latest versions of the approval forms which should be used.  Forms Food Law Code of Practice – Updated approval template forms – October 2024 require the user to select the options applicable to their approved establishment, while forms Food Law Code of Practice – Updated approval template forms with drop-down lists – October 2024 include drop down menus where users select appropriate options for their premises.  Regardless of form choice the contents will be used by Local Authorities as part of the approval process.  Here is a guidance document to help when completing the forms with drop-down lists: