Section 4Sec./Art. 4

Definition of Terms. For purposes of this Act, the following terms shall be defined as follows:

(a) Advertising refers to the business of conceptualizing, presenting or making available to the public, through any form of mass media, fact, data or information about the attributes, features, quality or availability of food and its related products for the purpose of promoting its sale or distribution and enhancing economic activity.

(b) Adulteration refers to an act which leads to the production of food which:

(1) Bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to the health of the public;

(2) Bears or contains any added poisonous or deleterious substance in amounts exceeding established maximum limits or standards for good manufacturing practice;

(3) Contains in whole or in part filthy, putrid or decomposed substance that is unfit for human consumption;

(4) Has been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions;

(5) In whole or in part, is the product of a diseased animal or an animal which has died through ways other than slaughter;

(6) Is in a container having in whole or in part any poisonous or deleterious substance;

(7) Has been intentionally subjected to radiation unless the use of radiation is in conformity with an existing regulation or exemption;

(8) Becomes injurious to health because of the omission or abstraction of a valuable constituent; or if any substance has been substituted wholly or in part; or if damaged or made inferior which has been concealed in any manner; or if any substance has been added thereto or mixed or packed therewith so as to increase its bulk or weight, or reduce its strength or to make it appear better or greater than it is;

(9) Has not been prepared in accordance with current acceptable manufacturing practice as promulgated by way of regulation; and

(10) Uses expired ingredients.

(c) Authorization refers to the permission embodied in a document granted by a regulatory agency to a natural or juridical person who has submitted an application for a food business operation from primary production, post harvest handling, distribution, processing, manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, and offer for sale, distribution, transfer and preparation for human consumption. The authorization can take the form of a permit, license, certificate of registration and certificate of compliance or exemption or any similar document.

(d) Contaminant refers to any substance not intentionally added to food which is present in such food as a result of the production (including operations carried out in crop industry, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine) post harvest handling, manufacturing, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food as a result of environmental contamination.

(e) Control measure refers to any action and activity that can be used to prevent or eliminate food safety hazard or to reduce it to an acceptable level.

(f) Crisis management refers to a proactive approach of addressing a situation, where a risk to consumers, animal or plant health cannot he controlled by normal existing mechanisms, through a plan which can be activated when such emergency arises.

(g) Food refers to any substance or product whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed that is intended for human consumption. It includes drinks, chewing gum, water and other substances which are intentionally incorporated into the food during its manufacture, preparation and treatment.

(h) Feed refers to any substance or product, including additives, intended to be used for oral feeding to animals.

(i) Food-borne illnesses refer to diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food.

(j) Food business refers to any undertaking, whether public or private, that carries out any of the activities related to, or any of the stages of the food supply chain.

(k) Food business operator refers to a person engaged in the food business including ones agents and is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of this Act are met by the food business under ones control.

(l) Food hygiene (hereinafter referred to as hygiene) refers to the measures and conditions necessary to control hazards that could lead to food-borne illnesses and to ensure fitness for human consumption of a food of plant or animal origin taking into account its intended use.

(m) Food law refers to the laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing food in general, donated food and food safety at any stage of production, processing, distribution and preparation for human consumption.

(n) Food safety refers to the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared or eaten according to its intended use.

(o) Food safety regulatory agencies (FSRAs) refer to the following national government agencies:

Under the Department of Agriculture (DA) the Bureau of Animal Industry, the National Meat Inspection Service, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, the Philippine Coconut Authority, the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the National Food Authority.

Under the Department of Health (DOH) the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Food Regulation and Research and the Bureau of Quarantine.

(p) Food safely officer refers to a professionally qualified and properly trained officer appointed by a food safety regulatory agency or by local government units (LGUs) in accordance with the appropriate civil service rules and regulations.

(q) Food safety regulatory system refers to the combination of regulations, food safety standards, inspection, testing, data collection, monitoring and other activities carried out by food safety regulatory agencies and by the LGUs in the implementation of their responsibilities for the control of food safety risks in the food supply chain.

(r) Food supply chain refers to all stages in the production of food from primary production, post harvest handling, distribution, processing and preparation for human consumption. Preparation is the cooking or other treatments to which food is subjected prior to its consumption.

(s) Good agricultural practices (GAP) refer to the practices that address environmental, economic and social sustainability for on-farm processes, and which result in safe and quality food and nonfood agricultural products.

(t) Good manufacturing practices refer to a quality assurance system aimed at ensuring that products are consistently manufactured, packed, repacked or held to quality standards appropriate for the intended use. It is thus concerned with both manufacturing and quality control procedure.

(u) Good hygienic practices refer to all practices regarding the conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety and suitability of food at all stages of the food chain.

(v) Hazard Analyses at Critical Control Points (HACCP) refer to a science-based system which identities, evaluates and controls hazards which are significant for food safety at critical points during a given stage in the food supply chain.

(w) Hazard refers to a biological, chemical or physical agent in food with a potential to cause adverse effect on health.

(x) Inspection refers to the examination of food, food production facilities or establishments, and the management and production systems of food businesses, including the examination of documents, finished product testing and registration, and of the origin and destination of production inputs and outputs to verify compliance with legal requirements by an agency mandated to perform food safety regulatory and/or enforcement functions.

(y) Label refers to the display of written, printed or graphic matter upon the immediate container, tag, literature or other suitable material affixed thereto for the purpose of giving information as to identify components, ingredients, attributes, directions for use, specifications and such other information as may be required by law or regulations.

(z) Micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) refers to food businesses as defined within the classification of industries by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

(aa) Misbranding refers to deliberate labelling or advertising of food that is misleading, where the labelling and/or advertising claims certain food properties that cannot be supported by a reliable source, a certifying body or by scientific evidence.

(bb) Official control refers to all types of controls and control activities made by regulatory agencies to verify compliance with standards, operating procedures, practices and other regulatory requirements. It includes routine monitoring of food establishments and more intensive checks involving inspections, verifications, audits, sampling and testing of samples and recall of defective products.

(cc) Person refers to any person, natural or juridical including, but not limited to, the following persons: (i) food business operators; and (ii) food safety officers and other regulatory personnel of the DA, the DOH and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

(dd) Post harvest stages refer to the stages in the food supply chain involving the minimal transformation of plant and animal foods after primary production such as removal of field heat for fruits, slaughter of animals, sorting, grading and cutting of fresh plant and animal foods, icing and freezing, and the milling and storage of grain.

(ee) Primary production refers to the production, rearing or growing of primary products including harvesting, milking and farmed animal production up to slaughter; and the rearing and growing of fish and other seafood in aquaculture ponds. It also includes fishing, and the hunting and catching of wild products.

(ff) Processing refers to any action that substantially alters the initial raw materials or product or ingredients including, but not limited to, heating, smoking, curing, maturing, drying, marinating, extraction, extrusion and a combination of those processes intended to produce food.

(gg) Risk refers to the likelihood of an adverse health effect and the severity of this effect following exposure to a hazard.

(hh) Risk analysis refers to a process consisting of three (3) interrelated components: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.

(ii) Risk assessment refers to the scientific evaluation of known or potential adverse health effects resulting from human exposure to biological, chemical and physical hazards.

(jj) Risk management refers to the process of weighing policy alternatives to accept, minimize or reduce assessed risks and if necessary, to select and implement appropriate prevention and control measures.

(kk) Risk communication refers to the interactive exchange of information and opinions during the course of risk analysis on the hazards and risks among risk assessors, risk managers, consumers, food and feed business operators, academia and other stakeholders.

(ll) Food safety standards refer to the formal documents containing the requirements that foods or food processors have to comply with to safeguard human health. They are implemented by authorities and enforced by law; and are usually developed and published under the auspices of a national standards body.

(mm) Traceability refers to the ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stages of production, processing and distribution.

(nn) Monitoring refers to the systematic gathering of data through the sampling of commodities as well as monitoring of food-borne diseases, collation and interpretation of collected data.

ARTICLE III

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FOOD SAFETY