57.—(1) In this section, the word “proprietor” means, in relation to any food, a person by whom such food is manufactured, prepared or imported.

(2) The Minister may, after consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce and the Minister for Agriculture, make, in relation to any food, regulations containing all or any of the following provisions:

(a) provisions requiring the submission to the Minister by every proprietor of the food of samples of the food for examination of their nature, substance, quality or condition,

(b) provisions authorising the issue by the Minister, to any proprietor by whom any such samples are so submitted for examination, of a certificate stating the result of the examination,

(c) provisions requiring the printing on the outside of every packet or container in which the food is to be sold for human consumption or on a label affixed in the prescribed manner to such packet or container of the name of the proprietor and a copy of the relevant certificate issued to him under a regulation made pursuant to paragraph (b) of this subsection,

(d) provisions prohibiting the sale for human consumption, or the offering or keeping for sale for human consumption, of the food in a packet or container which has not printed on the outside thereof or on a label affixed thereto as the regulations may provide the name of the proprietor and a copy of the relevant certificate issued to him under a regulation made pursuant to paragraph (b) of this subsection,

(e) provisions prohibiting the sale for human consumption, or the offering or keeping for sale for human consumption, of any article of the food which is of a nature, substance or quality, or in a condition, inferior to the nature, substance, quality or condition (as the case may be) of the samples of the food submitted for examination by the proprietor of such article as stated in the relevant certificate issued to him under a regulation made pursuant to paragraph (b) of this subsection.

(3) A person who contravenes a regulation under this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding ten pounds for each day on which the offence is continued or, at the discretion of the Court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine or fines and such imprisonment.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, regulations thereunder shall not, save with the consent of the Minister for Agriculture, be so framed as to apply in relation to any food in respect of which that Minister is empowered by any statutory or other enactment to prescribe standards for the composition thereof.