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Act 281 - Food Act 1983 PDF
Act 281 - Food Act 1983 PDF
Act 281
PREVIOUS REPRINTS
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Act 281
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Section
PART II
PART III
PART IV
Section
29. Importation
30. Warranty
31. Reliance on written warranty a good defence
32. Penalty for false warranty
PART V
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
32A. Prosecution
32B. Power to order appearance in court
33. Power to compound
33A. Offence by body corporate
33B. Protection against legal proceedings
33C. Indemnity
34. Power to make regulations
35. Repeal and savings
36. Application to tobacco, etc.
7
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Act 281
An Act to protect the public against health hazards and fraud in the
preparation, sale and use of food, and for matters incidental thereto or
connected therewith.
PART I
PRELIMINARY
1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Food Act 1983 and shall apply
throughout Malaysia.
(2) This Act shall come into force on such date as the Minister
may by notification in the Gazette appoint and the Minister may
appoint different dates for the coming into force of this Act for
different States in Malaysia or for different provisions of this Act.
Interpretation
―premises‖ includes—
controlled under the Poisons Act 1952 [Act 366] or the Control of
Drugs and Cosmestics Regulations 1984 [P.U. (A) 223/ 1984];
PART II
Approved laboratories
4. (1) An authorized officer may at any time for the proper and
better performance of his duty—
(f) seize and detain for such time as may be necessary any
food or appliance by means of or in relation to which he
believes any provision of this Act has been contravened;
or
(1E) Any statement made and recorded under this section shall be
admissible as evidence in any proceedings in Court.
(8) Where an authorized officer has seized any food and the
owner or the person in whose possession the food was at the time of
seizure consents in writing to its destruction, the food may be
destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the authorized officer may
direct and if the owner or the person does not consent to the
destruction of the food, the authorized officer may apply to a court
for the destruction or disposal of the food or any appliance and the
court may make an order as it may deem fit, notwithstanding that the
owner or the person has not been convicted of any offence in
connection with the food.
(10) Where any food or appliance has been seized and detained
under paragraph (1)(f) and the owner thereof has been convicted of an
offence the food or appliance may be destroyed or otherwise disposed
of as the court may direct.
(2) An authorized officer may at any place demand and select and
take or obtain samples for the purpose of analysis without payment
from any manufacturer making food for sale or from any importer of
any food or from his agent or servant.
(3) Any such authorized officer may require the person or his
agent or servant to show and permit the inspection of the package in
which such food is at the time kept and to take therefrom the samples
demanded.
(4) Where any food is kept for retail sale in an unopened package,
no person shall be required by any authorized officer to sell less than
the whole of the contents of such package.
(2) The procedure for taking and dealing with the samples shall
be as prescribed by regulations.
Certificate of analyst
(4) No copy of the result of any analysis made under this Act or
any reproduction thereof shall be displayed or used as an
advertisement and if any person so displays or uses such copy or
reproduction he commits an offence and is liable on conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to fine or to both.
(a) does not maintain the secrecy of all matters which come
to his knowledge in the performance of his official duties
under this section; or
(a) the food premises shall not be kept for the preparation,
preservation, packaging, storage or sale or, in the case of
a vehicle, for the conveyance, distribution or sale of any
food; and
(6) Where an order under subsection (2) has been served on the
proprietor, owner or occupier of any food premises, or the proprietor
or owner of any appliance and a certificate in respect thereof has not
subsequently been given or has not otherwise been deemed to have
been given any person who—
(a) keeps or uses the food premises or any part of the food
premises for the preparation, preservation, packaging, storage
or sale or in the case of a vehicle, for the conveyance,
distribution or sale of any food; or
PART III
12A. (1) For the purposes of this Part, the term ―owner of the rights
of the manufacturer or packer‖ means—
Food 23
13. (1) Any person who prepares or sells any food that has in or
upon it any substance which is poisonous, harmful or otherwise
injurious to health commits an offence and shall be liable, on
conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or to both.
13A. (1) Any person who prepares or sells any food that consists
wholly or in part of—
24 Laws of Malaysia ACT 281
(2) Any person who prepares or sells any food that contains or
upon which there is any matter foreign to the nature of such food, or
is otherwise unfit for human consumption, whether manufactured or
not, commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine
not exceeding thirty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding five years or to both.
Adulterated food
14. (1) Any person who sells any food which is not of the nature, or
is not of the substance, or is not of the quality (as specified under this
Act and any regulation made thereunder) of the food demanded by
the purchaser, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to fine or to
both.
Food 27
15. Where a standard has been prescribed for any food, any person
who prepares, packages, labels or advertises any food which does not
comply with that standard, in such a manner that it is likely to be
mistaken for food of the prescribed standard, commits an offence and
is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three
years or to fine or to both.
16. Any person who prepares, packages, labels or sells any food in
a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive as regards its
character, nature, value, substance, quality, composition, merit or
safety, strength, purity, weight, origin, age or proportion or in
contravention of any regulation made under this Act commits an
offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding three years or to fine or to both.
Advertisement
17. (1) Any person who for the purpose of affecting or promoting
the sale of any food, publishes or causes to be published, either on his
own account or as the agent or servant of the person seeking to effect
or promote the sale, any advertisement relating or likely to cause any
person to believe that it relates to such food, or to any ingredient or
constituent thereof, which—
(c) omits from the name or description of any food any word or
words required by regulations made under this Act to be
included in the name or description marked on or attached
to such food or marked on or attached to any package
containing such food; or
18. (1) On the conviction of any person of any offence under this
Act the court may, in addition to any other penalty which it may
lawfully impose, cancel any licence issued to such person under this
Act or any regulation made thereunder.
Prosecutions
19. (1) Where any analyst having analysed or examined any food to
which this Act applies, has given a certificate and from that certificate
it appears that an offence under this Act has been committed, an
authorized officer may, subject to section 377 of the Criminal
Procedure Code and section 32A, take proceedings under this Act
before any court having jurisdiction in the place where the food sold
was actually delivered to the purchaser or the sample thereof taken.
30 Laws of Malaysia ACT 281
(2) Where any food has been purchased or procured from any
person for analysis or examination, no proceedings in respect of the
sale thereof or of any offence against this Act shall be instituted after
the expiration of one hundred and fifty days from the time of
purchasing or procuring that food.
against this Act are heard may where it is reasonably and technically
practicable so to do and on the request of either party to such
proceedings order that the part of the sample retained by the
authorized officer be submitted to another analyst for analysis:
(2) The court may order the party making the request to pay the
costs of the analysis.
24. (1) For the purposes of this Act every person who prepares,
packages, labels, advertises or sells any food shall be deemed to do so
either on his own account or as the agent or servant of any other
person.
25. (1) When any food is sold or exposed or offered for sale it shall,
unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be sold or exposed or
offered for sale for human consumption.
(3) For the purpose of this Act every person shall be deemed to
sell or to intend to sell any food if he sells or intends to sell for
human consumption any food of which such food is a constituent.
Non-disclosure of information
PART IV
Importation
29. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the importation of any
food which does not comply with the provisions of this Act or any
regulation made thereunder is prohibited.
(4) Where such food is imported into Malaysia for the purposes of
relabelling, reprocessing or reconditioning it and the food is not
relabelled, reprocessed or reconditioned within three months of the
importation, the food shall be exported by the importer within a
period of two months or such other period as the Minister may
determine and, where it is not so exported, it shall be forfeited and
disposed of as the Minister may direct.
(6) The Minister may exempt any food or class of food from the
provisions of this section.
Warranty
(b) he had no reason to believe that the food sold did not
conform to such written warranty or statement; and
(a) has within fourteen days after the receipt of such warranty
or statement furnished a copy thereof to the Director or
any officer authorized by him in this particular respect;
and
32. (1) Any person who in respect of any food sold by him as
principal or agent gives to the purchaser a false warranty in writing
commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding two years or to fine or to both:
PART V
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Prosecution
32B. (1) Where the Director or any authorized officer has reasonable
grounds for believing that any person committed an offence under
this Act, he may, in lieu of applying to the court for a summons,
forthwith serve upon that person a notice ordering that person to
appear before the nearest court of a Magistrate having jurisdiction to
try the offence, at a time and date to be stated in such notice.
Power to compound
Indemnity
33C. (1) The Government shall not be liable to make good any
damage which an owner or occupier or person in charge of any food
premises may sustain as a result of an entry, search or seizure under
this Act, unless the damage was caused by the wilful neglect or
default of a public officer.
34. The Minister may make regulations for the better carrying into
effect the purposes and provisions of this Act, and in particular and
without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, for all or any of
the following matters:
35. (1) The following Ordinances are repealed to the extent that
they relate to food:
*
NOTE – Previously ―five‖ –see Food (Amendment) Act 2001 [Act A1117].
44 Laws of Malaysia ACT 281
36. (1) The provisions of this Act so far as they are applicable shall
apply, with such modifications as may be provided in regulations
made under this Act, to tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, snuff, and other
like substance in the same manner as the provisions apply to food.
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Act 281
LIST OF AMENDMENTS
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Act 281