Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

IMPORTED FOOD CONTROL ACT 1992 - SECT 9

             (1)  A person (other than an officer of Customs, or an authorised officer, acting in the course of his or her duties) may only deal in a particular manner with examinable food that the person knows:

                     (a)  has been imported into Australia; and

                     (b)  is food in respect of which a food control certificate has not been issued;

if either of the following applies:

                     (c)  the person has obtained the approval of an authorised officer to deal with the food in that manner;

                     (d)  the person is dealing with the food in that manner in accordance with a compliance agreement.

Penalty:  Imprisonment for 10 years.

          (1A)  A person (other than an officer of Customs, or an authorised officer, acting in the course of his or her duties) may only deal in a particular manner with examinable food that the person knows:

                     (a)  has been imported into Australia; and

                     (b)  is food in respect of which a food control certificate has been issued; and

                     (c)  is food for which an imported food inspection advice has not been issued;

if either of the following applies:

                     (d)  the person has obtained the approval of an authorised officer to deal with the food in that manner;

                     (e)  the person is dealing with the food in that manner in accordance with a compliance agreement.

Penalty:  Imprisonment for 10 years.

          (1B)  Subsection (1A) does not apply to a dealing with food for the purpose of altering or replacing the label on the package containing the food in order to meet applicable standards relating to information on labels for packages containing food.

Note:          A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to a matter in this subsection. See subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code .

             (2)  A person (other than an officer of Customs, or an authorised officer, acting in the course of his or her duties) must not deal in any manner with examinable food that the person knows:

                     (a)  has been imported into Australia; and

                     (b)  is food in respect of which a food control certificate has been issued; and

                     (c)  has been identified in an imported food inspection advice as failing food;

unless the owner of the food:

                     (d)  obtains the approval of an authorised officer to deal with the food in that manner; or

                     (e)  is permitted or required, in accordance with the advice, to deal with the food in that manner.

Penalty:  Imprisonment for 10 years.

             (3)  For the purposes of establishing a contravention of subsection (1), (1A) or (2), if, having regard to:

                     (a)  a person's abilities, experience, qualifications and other attributes; and

                     (b)  all the circumstances surrounding the alleged contravention of that subsection;

the person ought reasonably to have known of the matters referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b), (1A)(a), (b) and (c) or (2)(a), (b) and (c), as the case requires, the person is taken to have known of those matters.