Jan 2024 Food & Drink Update from Mills & Reeve

This post highlights a few short summaries from the Mills & Reeves January 2024 update; for more details on any of the topics mentioned below and further updates around labelling and the EU Green Claims proposal, you can visit their blog here.

Brexit Border Checks

Long-awaited changes to border controls on the import of animals, food and flowers from the EU into the UK will be subject to new Brexit customs controls from the end of January.

Under the new restrictions, imports of chilled and frozen meat and fish, cheese and dairy products, and five common varieties of cut flowers will require an export health certificate, signed off by a European vet or plant inspector, before they can enter the UK.

From 30 April the same categories of goods will face physical inspections at the border, raising the prospect of delays and potential for increased costs.

Allergen labelling in non-prepacked foods

The FSA is backing calls for “Owen’s Law” which will introduce guidance for food businesses of non-prepacked foods ie cafes and restaurants, on how best to provide written allergen information. In the meantime, the FSA will work to develop strong guidance for food businesses on how to provide written allergen information to help drive up compliance and make it easier for people with a food allergy, intolerance and coeliac disease to protect themselves when eating out.

Contractual unfairness in the agri-food supply chain

Defra consultation on Fresh Produce follows similar consultations that have already taken place looking at the dairy, pig and egg sectors, and is the next step in delivering on the UK government’s commitment to consult on the need for supply chain fairness regulations on a sector-by-sector basis.

Consultation on contractual relationships in the UK fresh produce industry – consultation document.docx. Consultation ends 22 February

Bird Flu & Eggs

Defra is consulting on a revision to egg labelling restriction.  If agreed, producers will no longer need to change how eggs are labelled during a bird flu outbreak.

Currently, when mandatory housing orders are introduced, eggs from free-range birds may continue to be labelled as “free-range” for 16 weeks and then must be labelled as barn eggs.

The proposals for England and Scotland will consult until 5 March 2024 and will amend the regulations to remove the “derogation” period. This would mean that free-range eggs can stay labelled as such throughout mandatory housing measures. It would also align the free-range egg marketing rules with the European Union

Visit the Food & Drink blog here.