The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998

• Citation: S.I. 1998/141
• Sections: 13

Section 1 Title and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and shall come into force on 19th February 1998.

Section 2 Interpretation

(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act" means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“bread" means a food of any size, shape or form which—

is usually known as bread, and

consists of a dough made from flour and water, with or without other ingredients, which has been fermented by yeast or otherwise leavened and subsequently baked or partly baked,

but does not include buns, bunloaves, chapatis, chollas, pitta bread, potato bread or bread specially prepared for coeliac sufferers;

“ common wheat ” means Triticum aestivum L.;

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“enzyme preparation" means any food additive which consists of one or more enzymes with or without the addition of supplementary material to facilitate the storage, sale, standardisation, dilution or dissolution of the enzyme or enzymes;

“flour" means the product which is derived from, or separated during, the milling or grinding of cleaned cereal whether or not the cereal has been malted or subjected to any other process, and includes meal, but does not include other cereal products, such as separated cereal bran, separated cereal germ, semolina or grits;

“flour bleaching agent" means any food additive primarily used to remove colour from flour;

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“food additive" has the meaning assigned to it by Article 3(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives Article 3(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No. 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives as last amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/1497 ;

“food authority" does not include—

the council of a district in a non-metropolitan county in England except where the county functions have been transferred to that council pursuant to a structural change;

the appropriate Treasurer referred to in section 5(1)(c) of the Act (which deals with the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple);

“ingredient" has the meaning assigned to it by Article 2(2)(f) of Regulation ( EU ) No 1169/2011 ;

“labelling" has the meaning assigned to it by Article 2(2)(j) of Regulation ( EU ) No 1169/2011 ;

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“Regulation ( EU ) No 1169/2011” means Regulation ( EU ) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations ( EC ) No 1924/2006 and ( EC ) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/ EEC , Council Directive 90/496/ EEC , Commission Directive 1999/10/ EC , Directive 2000/13/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/ EC and 2008/5/ EC and Commission Regulation ( EC ) No 608/2004 , as last amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council on novel foods ;

“sell" includes offer or expose for sale and includes have in possession for sale, and “sale" shall be construed accordingly.

“third country” means any country, other than the United Kingdom, and includes—

the Bailiwick of Guernsey;

the Bailiwick of Jersey;

the Isle of Man.

“ wholemeal flour ” means the flour consisting of the whole of the product obtained from the milling or grinding of cleaned cereals.

(2) Any reference in these Regulations to a numbered regulation or Schedule shall, unless the reference is to a regulation of, or Schedule to, specified regulations, be construed as a reference to the regulation or Schedule so numbered in these Regulations.

Section 3 Exemptions

(1) These Regulations, except in so far as they relate to advertising, shall not apply to any food which is not intended for sale for human consumption.

(2) These Regulations do not apply in respect of—

(a) any bread produced in England which is to be exported to a third country;

(b) any flour produced in England which is—

(i) to be exported to a third country, or

(ii) for use in the production of food that is to be exported to a third country;

(c) any flour imported into England from a third country (directly or indirectly) which—

(i) was lawfully produced and sold in that third country, and

(ii) is for use in England for the production of food that is to be exported to a third country,

which is suitably labelled to give the nature of the bread or flour.

(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(4) These Regulations do not apply to the following bread or flour if the nature of that bread or flour is clearly indicated on the labelling—

(a) any bread produced in Wales that is to be exported to a third country;

(b) any flour produced in Wales that is—

(i) to be exported to a third country, or

(ii) for use in the production of food that is to be exported to a third country;

(c) any flour imported or moved into Wales that is for use in Wales for the production of food that is to be exported to a third country.

Section 4 Composition of flour

(1) Subject to paragraphs (1A) and (2) below, flour derived from common wheat and from no other cereal, whether or not mixed with other flour, shall contain the substances specified in column 1 of Schedule 1 in accordance with the proportions and conditions prescribed in column 2 of that Schedule and with Schedule 2.

(1A) The requirements specified in paragraph (1) shall not apply to—

(a) wholemeal flour; or

(b) flour produced by a small mill which is a production site which has—

(i) a maximum annual production capacity of 500 metric tonnes of flour, and

(ii) produced less than 500 metric tonnes of flour for each of the last three calendar years.

(2) The requirements specified for item 1 in column 2 of Schedule 1 shall not apply in the case of—

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(b) self-raising flour which has a calcium content of not less than 0.2 per cent, and

(c) wheat malt flour.

(3) The substances specified in items 2-4 of Schedule 1 shall be added where such addition is necessary in accordance with the conditions prescribed in column 2 of that Schedule.

(4) Subject to paragraph (5) below—

(a) no manufacturer of flour shall sell any flour which does not comply with this regulation; and

(b) no person shall—

(i) import or move into England any flour, or

(ii) sell any flour imported or moved by him,

which does not comply with this regulation.

(5) Paragraph (4) above shall not apply as respects any sale importation or movement into England of flour for use in the manufacture of communion wafers, matzos, gluten, starch or any concentrated preparation for use for the purpose of facilitating the addition to flour of the substances referred to in Schedule 1.

Section 5 Additional ingredients

(1) No person shall use as an ingredient in the preparation of flour or bread any flour bleaching agent.

(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Section 6 Restrictions on the use of the words 'wholemeal’ and 'wheat germ’

(1) There shall not be used in the labelling or advertising of bread, as part of the name of the bread, whether or not qualified by other words—

(a) the word 'wholemeal’ unless all the flour used as an ingredient in the preparation of the bread is wholemeal;

(b) the word 'wheat germ’ unless the bread has an added processed wheat germ content of not less than 10 per cent calculated on the dry matter of the bread.

(2) No person shall sell or advertise for sale any bread in contravention of this regulation.

Section 7 Offences and penalties

(1) If any person contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 4(4), 5 or 6(2) he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(2) Where an offence under these Regulations is committed in Scotland by a Scottish partnership and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, a partner, he as well as the partnership shall be guilty of the offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Section 8 Enforcement

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

Section 9 Defence in relation to exports

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Section 10 Application of various sections of the Act

The following provisions of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations and unless the context otherwise requires any reference in them to the Act or Part thereof shall be construed as a reference to these Regulations—

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

(b) section 3 (presumption 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 section 8, 14 or 15;

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

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

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

(h) section 35(1) to (3) (punishment of offences) in so far as it relates to offences under section 33(1) and (2) as applied by paragraph (g) above;

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

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

Section 10A Transitional provisions

An authorised officer of a food authority must not serve an improvement notice under section 10(1) of the Act, as applied and modified by regulation 10 and Schedule 5, if—

(a) the improvement notice would relate to a product that was placed on the market or labelled before 13th December 2026; and

(b) the matters constituting the alleged contravention would not have constituted an offence under the Bread and Flour Regulations as they applied immediately before 13th December 2026.

Section 11 Amendments

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Section 12 Revocations

The Regulations specified in column 1 of Schedule 4 are hereby revoked to the extent specified in column 3 of that Schedule.