Eggs and Chicks (England) 2009 regulations
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Salmonella testing in laying hens
The Eggs and Chicks (England) Regulations 2009 extend the scope of the previous 2008 regulations in England only, to include the marketing and use requirements of the Salmonella National Control Programme (NCP) for laying flocks.
The NCP requires producers to regularly test their laying flock for Salmonella if they intend to sell their eggs as eggs suitable for direct human consumption, i.e. as eggs that will be sold to the general public as class A eggs.
There is no change to the existing NCP testing requirements. These state that laying flocks must be tested for Salmonella every 15 weeks; new flocks must be tested when the birds are 22 and 26 weeks of age and then every 15 weeks thereafter.
An aim of the new regulations is to encourage producers to test on time so preventing eggs from diseased hens, hens suspected of having salmonella and hens of unknown disease status entering the market as class A.
The regulations give new powers to Animal Health to impose penalty notices for non compliance where the NCP marketing and use requirements have not been met. Where the NCP testing is not up-to-date, this includes the requirement that eggs must only be used and sold as class B eggs.
Where eggs are being treated and/or labelled as class A eggs, producers and packers should be ready to produce evidence that the eggs are correctly classified for marketing as Class A to the Egg Marketing Inspector.
Any non compliance is referred to Animal Health’s Regulatory Compliance Team who will assess the offence. They may then issue a proportionate penalty notice or refer the matter for criminal prosecution.
Further information
- Guidance notes for administrative penalties
- Eggs and Poultry: Egg regulations
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/industry/sectors/eggspoultry/eggs.htm - Eggs and Poultry: other relevant legislation
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/industry/sectors/eggspoultry/legislation/index.htm - FAQs on this section Here