Genetically Modified and Novel Foods (Labelling) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 (S.R. No. 189 of 2000).

The products covered by Regulation 1139/98 are foods and food ingredients which are to be delivered as such to the final consumer, having been produced in whole or in part from genetically modified soya beans or genetically modified maize, as referred to in Article 1 of that Regulation. Regulation 49/2000 extended the scope of Regulation 1139/98 to cover sales to mass caterers and established a de minimis threshold of 1 percent for adventitious contamination of an ingredient with material derived from genetically modified organisms. Regulation 50/2000 also applies in the case of food and food ingredients intended for final consumers and mass caterers. The labelling requirements in Regulation 258/97 are to ensure the final consumer is informed of any characteristic or food property rendering a novel food or novel food ingredient no longer equivalent to an existing food or food ingredient; of the presence in the novel food or food ingredient of material which is not present in an existing equivalent foodstuff and which may have implications for the health of certain sections of the population or give rise to ethical concerns, and of the presence of a genetically modified organism. Regulations 1139/98, and 50/2000 were made pursuant to Article 4(2) of Council Directive 79/112/EC on the approximation of the laws of the member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs. Pursuant to Articles 11 and 13 of that Directive, these Regulations make provision as to the manner of marking or labelling in the case of the particulars required by those Regulations (regs. 4 to 6), and provide some exemptions. Further to Article 12 of the Directive, these Regulations: (a) allow alternative labelling arrangements instead of the particulars required by those EC Regulations in the case of sales to the final consumer by appropriate premises of food which is prepacked for direct sale or not prepacked (reg. 5); and (b) contain transitional arrangements in respect of sales of such food to the final consumer or to a mass caterer by analogy with Article 4(1) of Regulation 1139/98, Article 2 of Regulation 49/2000 and Article 5 of Regulation 50/2000 (reg. 12).