13. Definition and Glossary
| Definition | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Animal by- products | Parts of animal which are not intended for human consumption. |
| Assurance Schemes | Voluntary systems which verify, through regular independent inspections, that farmers and growers are meeting certain stated standards of production. The scope of assured food schemes covers both primary production and processes covering the rest of the food chain as far as retail sale. Production standards are set by the assurance scheme and vary across different schemes, generally covering food safety and traceability, animal welfare and environmental protection. Members of a particular scheme can use the scheme's logo on their produce, and/or use a specific claim, to advertise to consumers that the product has been produced to these standards. |
| Audit | A systematic and independent examination to determine whether activities and related results comply with planned arrangements and whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve objectives. |
| Authorised Officer (AO) | In relation to an enforcement authority, any person (whether or not an officer of the Authority) who is authorised by the CA in writing, either generally or specifically, to act in matters arising under the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006. |
| Cold Store | A wholesale establishment used for the storage under temperature controlled conditions of POAO intended for sale for human consumption. |
| Collection Centre | An establishment where raw milk is collected and where it may be cooled and filtered; or an establishment where edible co-products are collected and stored prior to being dispatched to a gelatin or collagen production establishment. |
| CA (CA) | The central authority of a Member State competent for the organisation of official controls or any other authority to which that competence has been conferred; it shall also include, where appropriate, the corresponding authority of a third country. |
| Composite Products | This is the term generally used for food containing both products of plant origin and processed products of animal origin as indicated in Article 1.2 of Regulation (EC) 853/2004. |
| Cutting Plant | Means an establishment used for boning and/or cutting up meat |
| Desinewed Meat | Also known at mechanically desinewed meat, Baader meat, 3mm meat. |
| Dispatch Centre | Any on-shore or off-shore establishment for the reception, conditioning, washing, cleaning, grading, wrapping and packaging of live bivalve molluscs fit for human consumption. |
| EC | European Commission |
| Edible Co-products | Parts of animals that are unsuitable for human consumption but which can later be processed for use in human food, e.g. hides and skins processed into gelatine and collagen, sheep intestines processed into sausage casings, and stomach (omental) fat processed into lard.
In order to be considered as an edible co-product, the product should not have been at any stage considered or handled as Animal By-product and must have been handled and stored in accordance with the Hygiene Regulations. Edible co-products must be handled in accordance with the food hygiene legislation at all stages of their production. At no point should they come into contact with or be categorised as animal by-product. If this happens, they should immediately be removed from the human food chain and downgraded to animal by-product. |
| Establishment (Also refer to definition of a ‘Premises’) | Any unit of a food business Note: ‘establishment’ does not simply mean premises’ but is directly linked to the business occupying the establishment (‘establishment’ denotes both premises and the manner in which those premises are being used by the food business operator). |
| Factory vessel | Any vessel on which fishery products undergo one or more of the following operations followed by packaging, namely, filleting, slicing, skinning, mincing, freezing or processing but does not include a fishing vessel in which only shrimps and molluscs are cooked on board or a fishing vessel on board which only freezing is carried out. |
| Final consumer | The ultimate consumer of a foodstuff who will not use the food as part of any food business activity or operation. |
| Food or Foodstuff | Means any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans. |
| Food business | Any undertaking whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing and distribution of food. |
| Food business operator (FBO) | Means the natural or legal persons responsible for ensuring that the requirements of food law are met within the food business under their control’.
A ‘natural person’ is a human being, (as opposed to an artificial, legal or juristic person, i.e., an organisation that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a person distinct from its members or owner).
A ‘legal person’ has a legal name and has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities under law, just as natural persons (humans) do. Legal personality allows one or more natural persons to act as a single entity (a composite person - considered under law separately from its individual members or shareholders) for legal purposes. E.g. A Limited Company is considered a ‘legal person’. |
| Food law | Means the laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing food in general, and food safety in particular, whether at Community or national level; it covers any stage of production, processing and distribution of food, and also of feed produced for, or fed to, food-producing animals. |
| FSS | Food Standards Scotland |
| FSMS | Food Safety Management System |
| Greaves | The protein-containing residue of rendering, after partial separation. |
| HACCP | Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (food safety management system. |
| Health Mark | A mark indicating that, when it was applied, official controls had been carried out in accordance with Article 18(2)(a), (b) and (c) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625. |
| Identification Mark (ID) | A mark indicating that a POAO has been produced in an approved establishment in accordance with legal requirements. |
| Inspection | The examination of any aspect of food, in order to verify that such aspect(s) comply with the legal requirements of food law. |
| LA | Local Authority |
| Lagomorphs | Rabbits, hares and (edible) rodents. |
| LBMs | Live bivalve molluscs |
| Meat | Edible parts of the following animals, including blood:
Small wild game: wild games birds and lagomorphs Farmed game: farmed ratities and farmed land mammals |
| Meat preparations | Fresh meat, including meat that has been reduced to fragments, which has had foodstuffs, seasoning or additives added to it or which has undergone processes insufficient to modify the internal muscle fibre structure of the meat and thus to eliminate the characteristics of fresh meat. |
| Meat products | Processed products resulting from the processing of meat or from the further processing of such processed products, so that the cut surface shows that the product no longer has the characteristics of fresh meat. |
| Mechanically separated meat (or MSM) | The product obtained by removing meat from flesh-bearing bones after boning or from poultry carcasses, using mechanical means resulting in the loss or modification of the muscle fibre structure. |
| Minced meat | Boned meat that has been minced into fragments and contains less than 1% salt. |
| Official controls | Any form of control that the CA or the Community performs for the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules. |
| Packaging | The placing of one or more wrapped foodstuffs in a second container, and the latter container itself. |
| Premises (Also refer to definition of an Establishment) | Includes any place, any vehicle, stall or moveable structure and, for such purposes as may be specified in an order made by the Ministers, any ship or aircraft of a description so specified. |
| POAO | Product of animal origin means:
and other animals destined to be prepared with a view to being supplied live to the final consumer. |
| Primary production | The production, rearing or growing of primary products including harvesting, milking and farmed animal production prior to slaughter, it also includes fishing and harvesting of wild products. |
| Primary products | Products of primary production including products of the soil, of stock farming, hunting and fishing. Primary products include amongst other things:
Products harvested from the wild either from plant or animal origin, e.g. mushrooms, berries, snails etc. |
| Processing establishment | An establishment where POAO are either treated, processed (heating, smoking, curing etc.) and wrapped or undergoes one or more of those handling activities. |
| Processed products | Foodstuffs resulting from the processing of unprocessed products. These products may contain ingredients that are necessary for their manufacture or to give them specific characteristics. |
| Purification Centre | An establishment with tanks fed by clean seawater in which live bivalve molluscs are placed for the time necessary to reduce contamination to make them fit for human consumption. |
| RAN | Remedial Action Notice |
| Retail | ‘Retail’ means the handling and/or processing of food and its storage at the point of sale or delivery to the final consumer, and includes distribution terminals, catering operations, factory canteens, institutional catering, restaurants and other similar food service operations, shops, supermarket distribution centres and wholesale outlets. |
| Re-wrapping establishment | An establishment that unwraps the initial wrapping or initial container, which is in direct contact with the product and then re- wraps the products. |
| RTE | Ready to eat |
| Unit | A single undivided entity or whole. |
| Unprocessed products | Foodstuffs that have not undergone processing, and includes products that have been divided, sliced, boned, cut, minced, chilled, thawed, frozen etc. |
| Wholesale market | A food business that includes several separate units which share common installations and sections where foodstuffs are sold to food business operator. |
| Wrapping | Placing of foodstuff in a wrapper or container in direct contact with the foodstuff concerned, and the wrapper or container itself. |