Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2251/92 of 29 July 1992 on quality inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables

• Coming into Force: 01 January 1993,07 August 1992
• End of Effective Date: 31 December 2001
• Celex Number: 31992R2251
• ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1992/2251/oj
• Published date: 04 August 1992
• Date: 29 July 1992
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Communities, L 219, 4 August 1992

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Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2251/92 of 29 July 1992 on quality inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables

Official Journal L 219 , 04/08/1992 P. 0009 - 0018

COMMISSION REGULATION (EEC) No 2251/92 of 29 July 1992 on quality inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 of 18 May 1972 on the common organization of the market in fruit and vegetables (1), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1754/92 (2), and in particular Articles 3 (5), 8, 10 (1) and 12 (3) thereof,

Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72 stipulates that conformity checks must be carried out by sampling to ensure that fruit and vegetables for which quality standards have been laid down effectively comply with those standards; whereas all the existing provisions concerning inspections should be grouped in a single Regulation; whereas Commission Regulations No 80/63/EEC of 31 July 1963 on quality inspection of fruit and vegetables imported from third countries (3), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 3078/89 (4), No 93/67/EEC of 3 May 1967 laying down initial provisions on quality control of fruit and vegetables marketed within the Community (5), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 2122/86 (6), (EEC) No 2638/69 of 24 December 1969 laying down additional provisions on quality control of fruit and vegetables marketed within the Community (7) and (EEC) No 496/70 of 17 March 1970 laying down initial provisions on quality control of fruit and vegetables exported to third countries (8) should therefore be repealed;

Whereas a single inspection method with well-defined components must be applicable at all marketing stages, regardless of the marketing channels followed by fruit and vegetables produced in the Community and subject to conformity inspection; whereas any lot of the goods in question could potentially be inspected; whreas whereas the conditions on which goods are to be rejected must be specified;

Whereas the competent body or bodies designated by the Member State are responsible for carrying out conformity inspections and must, as a rule, carry out the said inspections; whereas, however, in the interests of efficiency and in order to take account of the different situations to be found in the different Member States, provision should be made, subject to certain conditions, for authority to be transferred to approved private bodies or for centralized inspection centres to be used or for operators to be granted exemption provided they offer the necessary guarantees;

Whereas implementation of the inspection arrangements, including exemptions from inspection, requires that all operators and importers in the marketing chain be known; whereas, therefore, provision should be made for a register for this purpose, whereas the carrying out of inspection operations requires that information on the said operations be made available to the competent authorities; whereas, however, exemption from inspection must automatically entail exemption from this requirement;

Whereas the Community rules apply to imports from third countries; whereas imports must therefore comply with Community quality standards or equivalent standards and the Community inspection method must be applied to them; whereas certain third countries may have the products which they export to the Community inspected by their own authorities, on the spot or on arrival, provided that they satisfactorily guarantee that the standards have been complied with; whereas in the interests of good administrative and commercial practice, provision should therefore be made for the approval, at their request, of the inspection authorities of the exporting third countries concerned, where they meet certain requirements;

Whereas care should be taken that Community and imported products which are not required to meet the standards and are intended for processing are not disposed of on the market in products for consumption in the fresh state; whereas, to that end, such products should be accompanied by a processing certificate certifying their end-use and enabling that use to be checked;

Whereas the measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fruit and Vegetables,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Member States shall carry out conformity checks as laid down in Articles 8, 9, 11 and 12 of Regulation (EEC) No 1035/72, in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation.

Article 2

The following definitions shall apply for the purposes of this Regulation:

(a) 'conformity check' means any physical check or administrative formality carried out, following the method and procedure laid down in this Regulation, in order to ascertain whether fruit and vegetables meet the common quality standards, by specialist officials of the competent agencies appointed the Member States;

(b) 'identity check' means any check that products are correctly specified in the accompanying documents or certificates;

(c) 'competent agency' means the agency or agencies designated by a Member State to carry out the conformity checks referred to in Article 1;

(d) 'inspector' means a suitably trained official duly authorized by the competent agency to carry out conformity checks;

(e) 'goods' means the quantity of products to be sold by a given trader which is present when inspection is carried out. Such goods may be identified by a document and may consist of one or more types of product and one or more lots;

(f) 'lot' means a quantity of products that when inspected is presented as uniform as regards:

- identity of packer and/or consignor,

- country of origin,

- type of product,

- quality class,

- variety or commercial type (where appropriate),

- packaging and presentation,

- size (where appropriate);

(g) 'package' means individually packaged part of a lot, including contents;

(h) 'trader' means any natural or legal person presenting goods originating in Community or in free circulation within the Community, with a view to their marketing in the Community's territory and/or export to third countries;

(i) 'importer' means any natural or legal person presenting goods...