Resolution No. 19 of the Food Safety Agency on hygiene requirements for foodstuffs.

These Rules have been drafted in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Food Safety, Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs and the Codex Alimentarius International Food Standard CXS (Codex Stan) 1-1969. These Rules determine the hygiene requirements for the safety of food products at all stages of the food chain - including primary production, production, processing, distribution, use in public catering and service areas, disposal and destruction activities. Food business operators shall ensure that all stages of production, processing and distribution of food under their control satisfy the relevant hygiene requirements laid down in these Rules. The main objectives of these Rules are as follows: (i) to determine the fundamental principles of food hygiene in order to achieve the safety and suitability of food products for humans at all stages of the food chain; and (ii) to be used as a guiding document for the application of specific technical regulatory legal acts to be developed and adopted in relation to the safety of food products, technological processes or stages of the food chain in order to ensure hygiene requirements.
The rules of hygiene requirements for foodstuffs include the safety and suitability of food products at all stages of the food chain; prevention of microbiological, chemical and physical contamination of food products; prevention of possible threats to human life and health; compliance with the temperature regime appropriate to the nature of food products; equivalence with the requirements of other legal acts and international standards in force; compliance with instructions on good hygiene practices, food hygiene rules and HACCP principles; protection of consumer rights by ensuring food safety from primary production to delivery to the consumer.