Food Act (No. 93 of 1995).

This Act is the main framework law governing food safety, food quality, hygiene, consumer protection and official control of food in Iceland. Its purpose is to ensure, as far as possible, the quality, safety and wholesomeness of food, and to ensure that labelling and other information provided about food are correct and adequate. The Act applies to the production and distribution of food at all stages, including organic production, and also covers food contact materials, official controls in Iceland, and controls on ships and aircraft connected with Icelandic ports and airports. It excludes certain matters such as medicines, tobacco, narcotics, feed, plants before harvest and most live animals, unless they are raised for marketing as food. It also allows the Minister to create exemptions or adapted rules for small-scale, occasional, local, traditional or direct-to-consumer food production. The Act contains a broad definitions section covering, among other things, food, food businesses, production, distribution, marketing, primary production, retail, food contact materials, contaminants, additives, flavourings, pesticides, traceability, official controls, risk analysis, risk classification, organic production and internal control.
ubstantively, the Act prohibits the marketing of unsafe food, meaning food that is harmful to health or unfit for human consumption, and requires safety assessments to consider normal consumer use, labelling and information, immediate and long-term health effects, cumulative toxic effects, and vulnerable consumer groups. Food business operators are responsible for compliance at all stages of production and distribution, must verify that legal requirements are met, and must withdraw or recall unsafe food where necessary, inform consumers effectively, notify the relevant official control authority, and cooperate with authorities to reduce or eliminate risks. Food businesses generally require operating licences before starting activity, although some primary production activities are subject only to notification or are exempt. Businesses must follow hygiene rules, prevent contamination or spoilage, operate internal control systems based on hazard-analysis principles, ensure staff hygiene and training, and exclude persons with transmissible diseases from food-handling work. The Act also regulates storage, transport, traceability, food contact materials, labelling, misleading presentation, consumer protection, composition standards, additives, flavourings, pesticides, nutrients, contaminants and growth-promoting substances. It includes special provisions on slaughter and slaughter products, requiring slaughter for market distribution to take place in licensed slaughterhouses, veterinary inspection before slaughter, rules on diseased animals and residues, official marking of slaughter products, meat classification, and detailed regulation-making powers for sampling, inspection, storage and disposal. It also contains specific rules on organic production, including restrictions on using organic terms, symbols or indications unless the production complies with organic rules and is certified.
Institutionally, the Act places overall responsibility with the competent Minister, while the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority has major advisory, supervisory and coordination functions. The Authority is responsible for official control over areas such as most primary production other than vegetable crops, import and export of livestock products, meat processing and packing, dairy and egg processing, livestock diseases, slaughter products, farmed fish health inspection, seafood handling and distribution outside retail, imports of other foods, imports of food contact materials, and organic production outside retail. Municipal health committees also carry out official controls over food production and distribution, under the Authority’s overall supervision, especially in areas not reserved to the Authority. Official controls must be risk-based, regular and proportionate, taking account of inspection results and control plans; businesses are risk-classified and performance-classified, and control frequency may be reduced where accredited certification shows that internal controls meet legal requirements. The Act also regulates imports, including advance notification, documentation, border control and sampling for certain products, especially from outside the EEA. Finally, it provides enforcement powers, including the ability to restrict or stop distribution, impose corrective measures, revoke licences in cases of repeated or serious breaches, charge fees for licensing and control, and apply coercive measures, administrative sanctions and penalties for violations.