The Act Part 2: Food and Feeding Stuffs Section 34: Food hygiene information scheme
41.This section inserts provisions into section 16(1), and Schedule 1 to, the 1990 Act which allows the Scottish Ministers to establish by regulations a food hygiene information scheme. Section 16 (food safety and consumer protection) is the primary regulation-making power contained in the 1990 Act and is relied on to make many regulations in food law in Scotland, including on food hygiene. The new provisions inserted into Schedule 1 (provisions of regulations made under section 16(1)) elaborate on what the power to establish the scheme in section 16(1) can, in particular, be used to do. The intent is to make mandatory a food hygiene information scheme based on an existing Scottish voluntary scheme. The aim of the scheme is to improve hygiene standards and therefore make food safer for the consumer. The references to “food” in the amendments made here to the 1990 Act mean food as defined in section 53 of the Act by virtue of the amendments made to the 1990 Act by paragraph 2(2) of the schedule to the Act.