Businesses have been told to prepare for yet more legal changes in areas like labelling and novel foods under plans for UK-EU regulatory alignment
In the ten years since the UK public voted to leave the EU the political and trading relationship between the two parties can perhaps best be described as fluid. The latest positional shift has seen the UK Government state its intention for closer alignment on EU regulations in return for reduced barriers to trade – including for food and agricultural products.
In May 2025, a joint UK-EU Common Understanding document was signed which set out plans to align with EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules. The Labour government has subsequently put forward the European Partnership Bill in this year’s King’s Speech which, while short on detail, speaks to a desire to conclude negotiations before the notional deadline for realignment of the middle of 2027.
Andy Burnham’s accession to the role of prime minister following the departure of Sir Keir Starmer has introduced a degree of complexity back into proceedings. Burnham is not expected to deviate significantly from plans from greater EU alignment, however a UK-EU summit planned for July 22nd was postponed while both sides await clarity on the new UK Government position.
During a recent Footprint Legal webinar, experts from global legal business DWF guided attendees through the details of the legislation in scope of the proposed agreement, and explained what it means in practice for food businesses, and what they should be doing now to prepare for future realignment in areas like food labelling, nutrition and health claims, novel foods and packaging.
They also touched on some of the areas in which EU and UK rules have already diverged, and where the UK Government may seek to carve out further exemptions from future EU alignment.
Reducing trade pain
One of the main implications of the UK leaving the EU’s regulatory orbit following Brexit has been the addition of considerable friction in the movement of goods between the two trading blocs. Dominic Watkins, global head of consumer market and partner at DWF, highlighted how border inspection and documentation requirements – such as the need to obtain an export health certificate for each consignment of meat and dairy products at a cost of up to £200 – have added hundreds of pounds to the cost of shipments and in some cases delayed the movement of goods.
The agreement sets out to reduce friction materially by creating a common SPS framework. This will also cover trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland which is currently subject to the Windsor Agreement (which in effect has meant Northern Ireland has continued to follow EU rules).
Although broadly positive from an industry perspective, DWF director Anne Marie Taylor noted that while companies will benefit from less friction at the border, they will also have to figure out how how much of their operating model sits inside the future alignment perimeter, as well as keep pace with future EU-driven regulatory changes in areas such as operations, certification, labelling and IT systems. “Frustratingly, it looks like we’re potentially going to find ourselves back where we were prior to 2021 but likely without having very much say into where we’re going,” she added.
Wide ranging impact
While much of the focus of the political debate around closer UK-EU alignment has focused on the trade aspects, the implications of the agreement extend far beyond the border. Core food law relating to consumer information and food hygiene is also in-scope, as are consumer-facing rules in areas like labelling, nutrition, health claims and marketing standards, along with those relating to production and inputs like pesticides and veterinary medicines, and wider product governance rules covering areas like novel foods, food contact materials and packaging. Specific exemptions have already been agreed for wine and farm animal welfare labels, while Taylor noted further exclusions are still subject to negotiation.
The UK Government has largely sought to downplay the impact of plans for realignment, noting in its public communications that since leaving the EU there has been “some divergence” from EU legislation, “however in many cases that divergence has been minor or minimal”.
Taylor, however, questioned the extent to which that really is the case: “It’s taken a decade to untangle ourselves from the EU, so there’s probably nothing simple about aligning ourselves with it again,” she said.
Where has the EU deviated?
One area in which the EU has moved at a faster pace than the UK is in addressing the harms caused by the group of chemicals known as PFAS. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) prohibits the placing of food contact packaging on the market if it contains PFAS above specific safety thresholds from August 12th 2026 with no transition period. Taylor highlighted this as an area where regulatory regimes and rules overlap, creating uncertainty over the implications for UK businesses. Food contact materials are within scope of the agreement but it is as yet unclear whether UK businesses will be expected to meet the requirements of the PPWR specifically. “It’s been particularly challenging in our experience for EU businesses to prepare for [the PPWR] even with the full lead time, so it’s difficult to see how UK businesses could be expected to comply within shorter timeframes,” said Taylor.
Another example of divergence is in EU listeria rules for ready-to-eat foods. New microbiological criteria came into force from July 1st 2026 in the EU, meaning businesses need to ensure that Listeria monocytogenes will not exceed detectable levels in 25g of a ready-to-eat product throughout its entire shelf life, as opposed to the previous situation where they were not responsible for its growth after a food has left their immediate control.
Where has the UK deviated?
The UK has also used its newfound sovereignty to diverge from the EU in certain areas of food regulation. For example, successive UK governments have sought to speed up the approvals process for regulated products like those containing CBD (cannabidiol), a raft of which have been approved for sale in the UK while still being banned in the EU.
Taylor noted how clients that have submitted regulated product applications to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are already being impacted by the negotiations before the agreement has even been concluded. “We’re seeing many applications that are effectively being paused if they don’t meet the FSA’s three prioritisation principles for assessment; those being that products are essential for safety, applications are near the end of the process, or are one of the innovation priorities for the FSA. Basically, there is a whole tranche of applications trapped in limbo until the agreement is implemented,” she said.
One of the potential effects of regulatory realignment is that progress taken by the UK to fast-track food innovation is stopped in its tracks. One area of concern is over cell-cultivated products including lab grown meat. The FSA, in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland, is midway through a ‘sandbox programme’ through which regulators are working with selected businesses and experts to generate insights that will allow them to better guide companies on how to evidence they are making cell-cultivated products in a safe way. Earlier this month, the regulators published four new pieces of guidance to help businesses developing and producing cell-cultivated products and other novel foods navigate the regulatory requirements needed to bring safe, innovative products to market, including hygiene requirements and information for businesses conducting taste trials. Although this suggests cell-cultivated products is one area in which the UK will seek further exemptions, there has to-date been no formal statement of intent. The same goes for food and drink produced through precision fermentation or precision breeding technologies whose growth the UK Government has explicitly said it wants to support.
What should businesses do now?
For food businesses – including manufacturers, retailers, and food service operators – trying to make sense of the changes coming down the track, the focus in the short-term should be on mapping the products in their portfolio against the relevant pieces of EU-aligned law, said Taylor. “Which recipes rely on additives and flavours? Which products make nutrition or health claims, or organic claims, or origin claims? Which categories sit in the EU compositional or marketing standards buckets? Which labels have market specific addresses? What new information do you need from suppliers, and so on? These issues will affect everyone,” she stressed.
Watkins added that preparation and being alive to the issues material to your business is key. “It’s really easy to assume SPS just means importing and exporting, but this is so much broader and really is a reset back to what the position used to be pre-Brexit, but with the added complexity of things having changed since 2021,” he stated.
You can watch the full recording of the webinar here and sign up to receive weekly updates on the retail, food and hospitality sector’s most important regulatory developments via the DWF website.
Leave a Reply