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Section 1: Offences as to preparation and sale of injurious foods.

Food Act 1984 · 1984 c. 30View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: Food Generally

A person is guilty of an offence who—

adds any substance to food,
uses any substance as an ingredient in the preparation of food,
abstracts any constituent from food, or
subjects food to any other process or treatment, so as (in any such case) to render the food injurious to health, with intent that the food shall be sold for human consumption in that state.

A person is guilty of an offence who—

sells for human consumption,
offers, exposes or advertises for sale for human consumption, or has in his possession for the purpose of such sale,

any food rendered injurious to health by means of any operation described in subsection (1), subject to subsections (3) and (4).

In proceedings under this section for an offence consisting of the advertisement for sale of any food, it is a defence for the person charged to prove that, being a person whose business it is to publish, or arrange for the publication of, advertisements, he received the advertisement for publication in the ordinary course of business.

In determining for the purposes of this Act whether an article of food is injurious to health, regard shall be had not only to the probable effect of that article on the health of a person consuming it, but also to the probable cumulative effect of articles of substantially the same composition on the health of a person consuming such articles in ordinary quantities.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.