The government has confirmed it is scrapping plans to introduce country-wide post-Brexit labelling requirements.
As part of the deal between Brussels and London that regulates trade on the island of Ireland, also known as the Windsor Framework, the ‘not for EU’ label has been seen on an array of food and drink goods in Northern Ireland since October last year.
This was a requirement from the EU to make sure goods considered “high-risk” – such as meat and dairy – that were meant to be sold in the UK internal market did not accidentally cross the border to the Republic of Ireland.
These labelling requirements were supposed to be extended to the rest of Great Britain after Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party claimed the costly stamps were going to put British producers off from exporting to NI.
Earlier this month, The Grocer reported government was considering ditching plans to make ‘not for EU’ a GB-wide requirement after much lobbying from the food and drink industry.
Defra has now published an update to the policy following a “careful review” of a public consultation carried out on the subject earlier this year.
A statement read: “We welcome the ongoing commitment of businesses to continue to serve their customers in Northern Ireland. Based on that engagement, we will not proceed with the introduction of ‘not for EU’ labelling on a mandatory basis in Great Britain on 1 October 2024.
“We remain committed to ensuring we safeguard the supply of supermarket supplies into Northern Ireland on an ongoing basis. We will work intensively with industry to monitor those supplies and be assured that they will be maintained as the implementation of the Windsor Framework continues.”
The government will only implement GB-wide ‘not for EU’ labelling requirements on specific products in case there is evidence of a drop-off in supply that is leading to reduced availability in Northern Ireland.
Defra said it would “take the powers necessary to apply ‘not for EU’ labelling in the future, if that is required to secure those supplies across the UK internal market”.
The Food & Drink Federation, which had been warning of the skyrocketing costs to British manufacturers – and in turn, consumers – of expanding the requirements to the entire four nations has welcomed the news.
CEO Karen Betts said: “We’re very pleased the new government has listened to the food and drink industry’s concerns and has responded by maintaining a flexible and proportionate approach to ‘not for EU’ labelling.
“Our members are committed to supplying all our products everywhere across the UK, including to Northern Ireland. This more flexible approach will help keep prices down for consumers and help companies manage stock and supplies, as well as removing a barrier to investment in UK manufacturing.”
Provision Trade Federation director general Rod Addy agreed: “PTF, alongside a number of companies and trade associations, has campaigned vociferously for the crazy idea of GB-wide ‘not for EU’ labelling to be scrapped.
“While this announcement isn’t exactly that, it is an improvement on the potential scenario faced by businesses and at least means they don’t have to implement it today, as proposed by the Windsor Framework command paper.
“For those who have already invested to change their labelling and product runs, this will be cold comfort, but at least it means they won’t have to face recurring costs.
“For those who haven’t yet invested to make the change, this is one cost they will not now have to bear. That said, it would have been good to have this confirmed in writing sooner. The threat of GB-wide ‘not for EU’ labelling of course remains. Let’s hope UK government will be able to negotiate a solution with the EU that makes it unnecessary.”
As agreed in the Windsor Framework, phase two of the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme – under which the labels have been introduced – will come into effect on 1 October 2024.
This will bring more dairy products into scope of the labelling requirements, including all milk, buttermilk or cream, whey, butter, cheese and yoghurt. In the same way that fresh milk has had to carry the labels for the past year, these will need to be labelled individually at product level.
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