The Government has scrapped plans to put “Not for EU” stickers on milk, butter, meat and fish being sold in British supermarketsafter repeated warnings from the food makers that the scheme could cause “chaos” for producers and suppliers.
The Government is understood to have told UK food makers that it will indefinitely postpone new post-Brexit labelling rules, which had been drawn up by the previous Conservative government. The rules were set to require all meat, fish and dairy products in Britain to carry labels denoting they could not be sent to the EU and were expected to come into force from next month.
Judith Bryans, chief executive of dairy group DairyUK, said, “Dairy UK welcomes the announcement that the GB-wide ‘Not for EU’ marking requirement will no longer be rolled out on 1st October this year.
“Had this initiative gone ahead with new labels being required on pack by the 1st of October, it would have resulted in chaos for dairy and added significant unnecessary cost and a huge admin burden to businesses. We’re very pleased that the Government has listened to and reflected on the concerns we raised on behalf of our members.”
As part of the Windsor framework agreed with the EU last year, all meat and dairy products sent from Britain to be sold in Northern Ireland have since October 2023 had to carry a “not for EU” label. The measure is designed to prevent goods from bypassing EU controls by being sent to the Republic of Ireland, which does not have a hard border with custom checks on goods coming from Northern Ireland.
The industry, however, has been opposing this move, saying it will burden them with extra costs. The Food and Drink Federation had estimated the cost to the industry of meeting the new labelling requirements at up to £250 million a year, and warned that it would increase the price of products for shoppers.
The labelling was due to be extended to all meat and dairy products sold in Britain from October while fruit and vegetables, fish, and composite food products such as pizza, were intended to be labelled by July 2025.
Conservative government launched a consultation on the policy earlier this year. However, there had been no update since, creating a sense of uncertainty around this issue.
A letter this month from the Provision Trade Federation, which represents food producers, to the environment secretary, Steve Reed, said the lack of clarity was “extremely unsatisfactory” and had left the industry in “complete limbo”.
The letter, which was signed by several other bodies including the National Farmers’ Union, Dairy UK and the Food and Drink Exporters Association, urged the government to abandon the plan, or at least put in place a six-month delay to help businesses to prepare.
The letter said, “We would strongly urge you to draw a line under this poorly handled chapter and make the earliest possible announcement to that effect.”
