The Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003

law://uk/uksi/2003/1563@2026-11-12

Contents

1Title, commencement and extent#

These Regulations may be cited as the Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003, shall come into force on 12th July 2003 and shall apply to England only.

2Interpretation#

In these Regulations—• “the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;• “candy sugar” means crystalline sugar with crystals having any dimension greater than one centimetre;• “catering establishment” means a restaurant, canteen, club, public house, school, hospital or similar establishment (including a vehicle or a fixed or mobile stall) where, in the course of a business, food is prepared for delivery to the ultimate consumer and is ready for consumption without further preparation;• ^note...• ^note...• “food authority” does not include—(a) the council of a district in a non-metropolitan county except where the county functions have been transferred to that council pursuant to a structural change, or(b) the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c) of the Act (which deals with the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple);• “icing sugar” means fine particles of white sugar or extra-white sugar or mixtures thereof;• ^note...• “preparation” includes manufacture and any form of processing or treatment and “prepared” shall be construed accordingly;• “reserved description”, as respects any specified sugar product, means any description specified in relation to that product in column 1 of Schedule 1 (as read with the notes relating to that Schedule) and the use of any such description in these Regulations shall be construed as meaning the product to which that description relates;• “sell” includes offer or expose for sale or have in possession for sale, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;• “specified sugar product” means any food specified in column 2 of Schedule 1 (as read with the Notes relating to that Schedule) but does not include any such food in the form of icing sugar, candy sugar or sugar in loaf form;• “sugar in loaf form” means a piece of agglomerated crystalline sugar, usually conically shaped, weighing not less than 250 grammes; and• “ultimate consumer” means any person who buys otherwise than—(a) for the purpose of resale,(b) for the purposes of a catering establishment, or(c) for the purposes of a manufacturing business.

3Scope of Regulations#

These Regulations apply to specified sugar products, intended for human consumption and ready for delivery to the ultimate consumer or to a catering establishment.

4Reserved descriptions#

No person shall sell any food with a label, whether or not attached to or printed on the wrapper or container, which bears, comprises or includes any reserved description or any derivative thereof or any word or description substantially similar thereto unless—

(a)such food is the specified sugar product to which the reserved description relates;

(b)such description, derivative or word is used in such a context as to indicate explicitly or by clear implication that the substance to which it relates is only an ingredient of that food;

(c)such description, derivative or word is used in such a context as to indicate explicitly or by clear implication that such food is not and does not contain a specified sugar product; or

(d)such description, derivative or word is used in a customary name for another food product and is not liable to mislead the consumer.

5Labelling and description of specified sugar products#

Without prejudice to the generality of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumersas last amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council on novel foods, no person shall sell any specified sugar product unless it is marked or labelled with the following particulars—

(a)the reserved description of the product; and

(b)in the case of sugar solution, invert sugar solution and invert sugar syrup, the dry matter and invert sugar content of the product.

6Manner of marking or labelling#

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7Penalties and enforcement#

(1)Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 4 or 5 of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(2)Each food authority shall enforce and execute these Regulations in its area.

8Defence in relation to exports#

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990#

The following provisions of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations with the modification that any reference in those provisions to the Act or Part thereof shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations—

(a)section 2 (extended meaning of sale etc.);

(b)section 3 (presumptions that food is intended for human consumption);

(c)section 20 (offences due to fault of another person);

(d)section 21 (defence of due diligence) as it applies for the purposes of sections 8, 14 or 15 of the Act;

(e)section 22 (defence of publication in the course of business);

(f)section 30(8) (which relates to documentary evidence);

(g)section 33(1) (obstruction etc. of officers);

(h)section 33(2), with the modification that the reference to “any such requirement as is mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above” shall be deemed to be a reference to any such requirement as is mentioned in that subsection as applied by sub-paragraph (g) above;

(i)section 35(1) (punishment of offences) insofar as it relates to offences under section 33(1) as applied by sub-paragraph (g) above;

(j)section 35(2) and (3) insofar as it relates to offences under section 33(2) as applied by sub-paragraph (h) above;

(k)section 36 (offences by bodies corporate); and

(l)section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith).

10Revocations and consequential amendments#

(1)The following Regulations are hereby revoked (insofar as they apply to England):

(a)the Specified Sugar Products Regulations 1976 ^note;

(b)the Specified Sugar Products (Amendment)Regulations 1982 ^note.

(2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(3)The following entries relating to the Specified Sugar Products Regulations 1976 shall, insofar as the following Regulations apply to England, be omitted—

(a)in the Food (Revision of Penalties) Regulations 1982 ^note, in Schedule 1;

(b)in the Food (Revision of Penalties) Regulations 1985 ^note, in the Schedule, Part I;

(c)in the Food Safety Act 1990 (Consequential Modifications) (England and Wales) Order 1990 ^note, in Schedule 1, Part I, Schedule 2, Schedule 3, Part I and Schedules 6 and 12;

(d)in the Food Safety (Exports) Regulations 1991 ^note, in Schedule 1, Part I;

(e)in the Food (Forces Exemptions) (Revocations) Regulations 1992 ^note, in the Schedule, Part I;

(f)in the Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995 ^note, in Schedule 9;

(g)in the Miscellaneous Food Additives (Amendment) Regulations 1999 ^note, in regulation 14(1);

(h)in the Miscellaneous Food Additives (Amendment) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2001 ^note, in regulation 9(2).

(4)In the Colours in Food Regulations 1995 ^note, insofar as they apply to England, in regulation 12 paragraph (2) shall be omitted;

(5)In the Miscellaneous Food Additives Regulations 1995, insofar as they apply to England—

(a)in regulation 10, paragraph (4) shall be omitted;

(b)in Schedule 2, in column 1, for the reference to “Directive 73/437/EEC” there is substituted a reference to “ Directive 2001/111/EC ”.

(6)In the Coffee Extracts and Chicory Extracts (England) Regulations 2000 ^note, insofar as they apply to England, in regulation 5(1)(c), for the reference to the Specified Sugar Products Regulations 1976 there is substituted a reference to the Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003.

11Transitional provision#

In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person accused to prove that—

(a)the food concerned was marked or labelled before 12th July 2004, and

(b)the matters constituting the alleged offence would not have constituted an offence under the Specified Sugar Products Regulations 1976 as those Regulations stood immediately before the coming into force of these Regulations.

Schedule 1 · Specified sugar products and their reserved descriptions

(1)The reserved description “sugar” or “white sugar” may be used as an alternative to the reserved description “extra-white sugar” in the case of the product described at paragraph 3 above.

(2)In the case of invert sugar syrup incorporating crystals in the solution the qualifying term “crystallised” shall be added to the description of the product.

(3)Where a specified sugar product described at paragraph 7 or 8 above contains fructose in a proportion of greater than 5% on a dry matter basis the reserved description shall be “glucose-fructose syrup” or “fructose-glucose syrup” and “dried glucose-fructose syrup” or “dried fructose-glucose syrup” as the case may be so as to reflect whether the glucose component or the fructose component is in greater proportion.

(4)The products described at paragraphs 1 to 11 above may, in addition to the reserved description, also bear commonly used qualifying terms provided that the result is not liable to mislead the consumer.

(5)The description “white” may be used in relation to any product described at paragraph 4 above where the colour in solution does not exceed 25 ICUMSA units determined in accordance with the method of the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (“ICUMSA”) as set out in paragraph 3 of Chapter A of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No. 1265/69^note.

(6)The description “white” may be used in relation to any of the products described at paragraphs 5 and 6 above where the conductivity ash content does not exceed 0.1% and the colour in solution does not exceed 25 ICUMSA units determined as set out in paragraph 1 of Chapter A of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No. 1265/69.

(7)Specified sugar products may contain—

(a)a permitted extraction solvent, as defined in regulation 11 of the Food Additives, Flavourings, Enzymes and Extraction Solvents (England) Regulations 2013;

(b)any substance permitted under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives.

Schedule 2 · Methods of analysis

(1)The method for determining the loss on drying of semi-white sugar, sugar or white sugar and extra-white sugar is Method 1.

(2)The method of determining the colour type of sugar or white sugar and extra-white sugar is the method of the Brunswick Institute for Agricultural and Sugar Industry Technology set out in Chapter A paragraph 2 of the Annex to the Commission Regulations (EEC) No. 1265/69 of 1st July 1969 ^note. For the purpose of determining the number of points, one point corresponds to 0.5 units.

(3)The method of determining the ash content of extra-white sugar, sugar solution, invert sugar solution, invert sugar syrup and fructose is the method of ICUMSA as set out in Chapter A, paragraph 1, of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No. 1265/69. For the purpose of determining the number of points, one point corresponds to 0.0018% of ash.

(4)The method of determining the colour in solution of extra-white sugar and sugar solution is the method of ICUMSA set out in Chapter A, paragraph 3 of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No. 1265/69. For the purpose of determining the number of points for the purposes of paragraph 3 of Schedule 1, one point corresponds to 7.5 units.

(5)The method for determining the dry matter content of glucose syrup, dried glucose syrup, dextrose or dextrose monohydrate and dextrose or dextrose anhydrous is Method 2.

(6)The method for determining the dry matter content of sugar solution, invert sugar solution and invert sugar syrup is Method 3.

(7)The method for determining the invert sugar content of semi-white sugar is Method 4.

(8)The method for determining the invert sugar content of sugar or white sugar and extra-white sugar is Method 5.

(9)The method for determining the invert sugar content of sugar solution, invert sugar solution and invert sugar syrup is Method 7.

(10)The method for determining the sulphated ash content of glucose syrup, dried glucose syrup, dextrose or dextrose monohydrate and dextrose or dextrose anhydrous is Method 9.

(11)The method for determining the polarisation of semi-white sugar, sugar or white sugar and extra-white sugar is Method 10.

(12)For the purposes of this Schedule—

(a)references to Methods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 are references to the Methods specified by the same numbers in Annex II to Commission Directive 79/796/EEC^note laying down Community methods of analysis for testing certain sugars intended for human consumption, as read with the introduction to that Annex; and

(b)“ICUMSA” means the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003

The Specified Sugar Products (England) Regulations 2003

1Title, commencement and extent#

2Interpretation#

3Scope of Regulations#

4Reserved descriptions#

5Labelling and description of specified sugar products#

6Manner of marking or labelling#

7Penalties and enforcement#

8Defence in relation to exports#

9Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990#

10Revocations and consequential amendments#

11Transitional provision#

Schedule 1 · Specified sugar products and their reserved descriptions

Schedule 2 · Methods of analysis

Connections

Defined terms · 10

Key facts

History · 5 versions

1Title, commencement and extent#

2Interpretation#

3Scope of Regulations#

4Reserved descriptions#

5Labelling and description of specified sugar products#

6Manner of marking or labelling#

7Penalties and enforcement#

8Defence in relation to exports#

9Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990#

10Revocations and consequential amendments#

11Transitional provision#

Schedule 1 · Specified sugar products and their reserved descriptions

Schedule 2 · Methods of analysis