Blurring the Lines with Brexit Food Labels
Ruth Watson
‘Not for EU’ labels have begun to appear in some supermarkets on food produced for local consumption. This clumsily worded and expensive additional classification is part of ‘The Windsor Framework’, that effort to find a solution to the very real risk Brexit poses to the Good Friday Agreement which requires there to be no border either in the sea or on the island of Ireland.
The European Union does not want a situation where UK produce containing imported ingredients of a lower quality could enter the EU via Northern Ireland. The 2019 Northern Ireland Protocol kept the north of the island inside the EU single market for goods, including food and drink. However, the Democratic Unionist Party were vocal in their insistence the Protocol be changed to ensure there was no form of border in the Irish Sea.
Any ‘third country’, which the UK now is following Brexit, only can export food and drink into the EU which meet its high standards. The EU was concerned that lower quality UK produce entering Northern Ireland would make its way to the Republic of Ireland and onto other nations in the European Union. Given the UK is careening away from the quality and safeguards which we have enjoyed as standard over the last several decades of EU membership, this is an understandable concern.
The "Not for EU" labelling required on food and drink sold throughout the UK could see the label appear in four different ways on produce. The current suggestion is the labels would appear not only on individual packs of food, but also on cases carrying products and on supermarket shelves: a significant extra cost for businesses which we, the customers, no doubt will see in the form of increased price tags.
David Henig is the Global Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy. An expert advisor on international trade, David is the kind of man governments go to for guidance. He is scathing of the situation we now are in.
“It cannot be a good thing for our food to be labelled ‘not for consumption’ in our neighbouring countries,” David says. “It adds another layer of complexity to the trading arrangements for Northern Ireland if the UK is not aligning with EU food rules, but the UK Government has chosen to proceed in this way. It would have been simpler for the UK to align with EU food rules, but the UK wanted a trade deal with the US and thought they would need to lower the food standards for that.”
The UK Government had announced this October would see the introduction of health certification on food imports from the EU. This now has been delayed for the fifth time because of very real fears about the impact on businesses and on our food supplies: empty shop shelves already are a shockingly common occurrence, with many supermarkets placing cardboard sheets with pictures of fresh food to hide the gaps, something which was unthinkable before Brexit. The UK Government’s ‘Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 threatens to abandon European food standards completely in the Brexit bonfire of EU regulations due on the self-imposed deadline of the 31st of December 2023. A system of physical checks on food and plant products from the EU was due to begin in January 2024, but this may also be delayed.
Brexit trade deals with Australia and New Zealand came into effect at the end of May. While Antipodean politicians were slapping each other on the back and popping the corks of premium Aussie prosecco, the details were met with some shock and dismay in the UK business community. In an open letter earlier this year, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, made a series of commitments to protect UK food standards but there is nothing more than a promise to ‘consider the full impacts’ on our domestic agricultural sector and there is wide dismay at the recent news that Brazilian imports of beef and chicken no longer will require additional stringent checks following the Carne Fraca rotten meat scandal – all to protect the Brexit trade deals the UK Government are so desperate for.
“It may well be that future governments have to reopen these deals to put in safeguards, but there is no indication that the current trade deals are being negotiated in any different way,” David Henig says. “People are watching what the UK does. There is a perception the UK Government will give away anything because it is desperate for deals. It would be difficult for the UK Government to include the devolved governments in their strategy because they have no strategy.”
The Scottish Government has been watching developments with concern. A new ‘Food Security Unit’ has been announced. Speaking at the ‘Securing a Sustainable Food Supply for Scotland’ debate in Parliament earlier this year, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said, “I want to ensure we are able to anticipate and adapt to shocks as much as possible, while we develop policies to try to mitigate them and reduce their likelihood. While it is not possible to predict all impacts, our new dedicated Food Security Unit will enable better long-term insight into global supply chain performance - helping us to improve our responsiveness to potential crises.”
In addition to the threat to human and animal health, there is significant disquiet at the real prospect of untraceable, unsustainable, low quality imports undermining the reputation of Scotland’s farmers whose world-renowned products are reared and grown with provable good practices at the fore. It is not just meats which are an issue. Fruits and vegetables from across the world have long been a staple on our shelves but, before Brexit, they came from farms growing and rearing produce which met EU standards. Now, following Brexit deals, the food is covered in pesticides and other chemicals banned for decades in the EU. Food labelling rules – controlled by Westminster - mean companies selling food and drink in the UK do not have to disclose where the ingredients of processed and prepared foods come from. There is real anxiety among local producers that people will avoid products with ‘Not For EU’ labels because there is a chance they will contain foods with substandard imported ingredients. I know that when I lived in Asia, many people there actively sought out EU food and drink because they knew it was high quality. Scottish produce was highly valued, having a well-deserved reputation. That now is jeopardised, both at home and abroad. The Scottish Government and our food and drink producers work hard to maintain the standards of produce raised and grown in Scotland.
Clear food labels showing honest provenance has never been so important.
Ruth Watson is the founder of the Keep Scotland the Brand campaign and a director of Common Weal