S.L. 437.45 ст. 5Border inspection post facilities. 3 4 [

(1) The facilities in approved border inspection posts must be constructed, equipped, maintained and operated in line with the requirements set down in the Schedule and in relevant European Community legislation. For products that are not fully harmonised from a hygiene viewpoint, additional national hygiene requirements may be applied. S.L.437.45 INSPECTION POST IN MALTA [

(2) The minimum infrastructure for any approved border inspection post must include the following elements within effective working distance of each other:

(a) an office with communication equipment including a telephone, a fax, an Animo system terminal, a photocopier, all necessary documentation, and archiving capacity to store documents relating to the inspection of products;

(b) social rooms consisting of changing rooms, toilets, and hand washing facilities for the use of the personnel working in the border inspection post, which may be shared only with other personnel involved in official controls;

(c) an area for unloading the means of transport of consignments which shall be enclosed or covered by a roof, except in the case of consignments of non containerised wool, loose bulk processed animal protein not fit for human consumption, loose manure or guano, or bulk liquid oils and fats, which are transported in boats, for which the roof requirement may not apply; for products under temperature control intended for human consumption the junction between the transport and unloading areas should be protected or sealed from the external environment, except in the case of fish where the derogation referred to in article 2 of European Union Commission Decision 93/352/EEC and Chapter II point 2 of the Annex to European Union Council Directive 91/493/EEC shall apply;

(d) an inspection room where the products are to be inspected and samples taken for further tests; the sampling area need not be separate from the inspection room;

(e) appropriate storage rooms or areas, to permit detained consignments to be held at chilled, frozen, or ambient temperatures at the same time, under the control of the official veterinarian pending the results of laboratory or other investigations.

(3) Border inspection posts approved to handle chilled, frozen and ambient categories of product, must be able to simultaneously store adequate volumes of product in each temperature category. Immediate access to an adequate volume of storage shall be available at all times as necessary for the official veterinarian. The use of commercial storage facilities close to the border inspection post and within the same port or customs area, is permitted under the control of the official veterinarian, and provided that the detained product is stored in a separate lockable room, chamber, or zone clearly fenced off from all other products. Storage in separate stand-alone containers permanently placed by the unloading area is permitted provided that the S.L.437.45 INSPECTION POST IN MALTA containers are linked to the unloading area in such a manner that the unloading process is under shelter from the weather. Additional storage for each product category in the means of transport in which a consignment was brought to the post is permitted exceptionally under the control of the official veterinarian for border inspection posts situated at road, rail or port locations.

(4) Products for human consumption and products not for human consumption should be handled in separate unloading areas, inspection rooms and storage facilities. By derogation from this requirement in the case of border inspection posts officially approved as restricted to packed products only, unloading areas may be common, provided then that during and after unloading, there is clear separation of products for human consumption and those not for human consumption, with a view to prevent cross contamination.

(5) By derogation from subregulation (4), border inspection posts having a throughput of less than 500 consignments per year may utilise the same facilities provided for unloading, inspection and storage for all products for which the post is approved, provided that a time separation of consignments is implemented, and that adequate cleansing and disinfection of the premises between arrivals of different consignments is undertaken as necessary.