Food Safety Act 1990
This Act largely replaces and amends the Food Act, 1984, and also amends Part 1 of the Food and Environment Protection Act, 1985.
| Section 8 (1) | makes it an offence to sell food for human consumption which fails to comply with food safety requirments and the offence includes offer, expose or advertise for sale. Infested or pest contaminated food may be considered as not complying with food safety requirments, particularly if the pests concerned were rodents or cockroaches. |
| Section 8 (2) | states that food may fail to comply with food safety requirements if it is unfit for human consumption or so contaminated that it would not be reasonable to expect it to be used for human consumption in that state. It is likely that food contaminated by rodents or cockroaches would be considred unfit. |
| Section 10 | states that "Improvement Notices" may be served on the proprietor of a food business and regulations that make provision for "securing the observance of hygiene conditions and practices in connection with the carrying out of commercial operations with respect to food and food sources". The control of pests and installation fo preventative measures may be included in improvement notices - e.g. installation of fly screens. |
| Section 11 | states that "Prohibition Orders" may be imposed on food business processes or equipment if there is any risk of injury to health. This could result from heavy infestation by birds, rodents ro cockroaches. |
| Sections 12 and 13 | are concerned with emergency prohibition notices and emergency conrol orders. |
| Section 14 | states that any person who, to the purcheser's prejudice, provides any food which is not of the nature of substance or quality demanded by purchaser, shall be guilty of an offence. Food infested with insects or mites is not likely to be 'of the nature, substance or quality demnded'. |
| Section 21 | provides for the defence of "due diligence". If the person charged with a food safety offence is able to prove that 'all reasonable precautions were taken and due diligence exercised' to avoid the offence being committed it would be considred that their actions had been sufficient. |
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