The Food Safety Act, the main provisions of which came into effect on 1 January 1991, provides the basic framework for all food legislation throughout the UK. Its primary aim is to strengthen and update the previous food legislation. | 2 Legislation codes of practice and microbiological criteria UK legislation the Food Safety Act 1990 European Community legislation Hazard analysis Laboratory accreditation Microbiological criteria Microbiological guidelines for some ready-to-eat foods sampled at point of sale Appendix UK sources of microbiological guidelines UK legislation the Food Safety Act 1990 The Food Safety Act the main provisions of which came into effect on 1 January 1991 provides the basic framework for all food legislation throughout the UK. Its primary aim is to strengthen and update the previous food legislation to achieve the highest possible standards of food safety and consumer protection throughout the food chain. The main feature of the Act is the number of enabling powers that it contains. This allows ministers to make further regulations to implement food safety measures and to produce codes of practice to bring about more consistent standards of enforcement. Food is broadly defined under the Act to include virtually anything that is eaten drunk or sold as a food product the definition also includes water which was not covered under previous food legislation. There were a number of reasons why a new Food Safety Act was required 1 Existing legislation which had been consolidated in the Food Act 1984 but not fully revised since 1938 had not kept pace with the rapid advances in food technology and changes in eating habits and shopping patterns. There were gaps in the existing legislation. The major changes of approach to food law brought about by the European Community EC harmonization programme required a change in the UK food law to make the implementation of EC legislation easier. The considerable concern in the late 1980s within the government and the general public about the increasing incidence of food-borne infection particularly associated with Campylobacter spp. Salmonella spp. especially S. Enteritidis phage type 4 and Listeria .
