Article 44 of the Saudi Food Law

This article deals with the Implementing Regulations of the Food Law, the document to which many articles of the Law refer for the detail of conditions and procedures.

Provisions of the article:

• Issuing body: the Board, which under Article 1 is the Board of Directors of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority.
• Deadline: within 180 days of the date the Law is published in the Official Gazette.
• Start of effect of the Regulations: they take effect from the date the Law itself takes effect.

To understand the last provision, refer to Article 45, which provides that the Law takes effect 180 days after the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. The period allowed for issuing the Regulations equals the period before the Law takes effect, so the Law and its Regulations begin to apply together.

The practical importance of this provision is that many details an establishment owner needs, such as the conditions of registration and licensing and the procedures for clearance, advertising and withdrawal, are not in the Law but in the Regulations.

The article does not state the date of the Law's publication or the date the Regulations were actually issued; anyone who needs these dates should refer to the Official Gazette or to the Authority.

This article comes after Article 43, which allows the Authority to enlist any other government body or the private sector to carry out its tasks.