DEAL OR NO DEAL

Legislation - The Impact of Brexit on Food Labelling

The ‘B’ word is now at the height of the UK’s attention as to a possible exit day on March 29th approaches. There are many concerns being expressed on all sides as to what impact a ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’ Brexit will have on the UK. One area it will ultimately affect is the food and drink sector.

Brexit with a deal

Should the proposed draft withdrawal agreement be approved and signed off by Parliament, there will be a transition period until at least 31st December 2020. This means that there will be little change for the UK’s food & drink businesses during this period, where all existing EU rules and regulations will continue to apply along with any new requirements made by the EU during this time. This will give both sides some breathing space to finalise the details of any future trade agreements and for Parliament to make the legislative changes that are required.

Brexit without a deal

As the UK is no doubt aware, the position becomes more complicated if the draft withdrawal agreement does not get approved by Parliament before March 29th. Even though UK food businesses will still be subject to EU laws after this date, there will be certain legislative changes which will need to take place immediately as there will be no period of transition.

The main impacts of a no deal Brexit on food labelling are:

• Updating references to the ‘EU’ with ‘UK’

• Name & address of the food operator to change from EU to either the UK address of a food business operator that is responsible for the information on the product, or if the business is not based in the UK, the name & address of the importer.

• Country of origin to change from ‘EU’ to ‘UK’ where applicable.

• The EU health mark which shows that meat, fish and dairy products are produced in accordance with EU food hygiene regulations will need to be updated to a new UK health mark that is currently being developed by the Food Standards Agency

The above changes will have an impact on UK food business operations, and although there will be a limited period in which to implement these revisions, if you are in the food and drink sector, you need to be making adequate provisions for such an event. Changes to consider are updates to your existing packaging, revised labels or over labelling, all of which can be created at minimal cost without impact to your sales or production.

Please note that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to any other group or individual. To ensure you are fully compliant with all current legislation, please take legal/professional advice and do not rely solely on the information provided in these articles.