Post-Brexit Food and Non-Food Labelling

31 December 2020 marks the end of an 11-month transition period for Brexit. How are labels of food and non-food products going to change? And is 31 December a hard deadline for all cases?

Here is an overview to help you understand what’s going to happen.

Four general principles that will apply to all UK businesses exporting to the EU from on 1 January 2020.

• After Brexit, trade between the EU and the UK will be regulated by import/export rules. These may be more or less demanding depending on the (still uncertain) outcome of trade negotiations
• In October 2020, the UK and the EU signed a protocol to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland. According to this protocol, NI will still follow EU rules on standards and labelling, although it remains part of the UK
• UK products exported to the EU/EEA will have to replace ‘Made in the EU’ (or one of its variations) with ‘Made in the UK’
• After Brexit, the EU and UK will continue to share the same quality standards. The British Standards Institution (BSI), the reference for standards in many industries (including food), will remain part of the European Standards body (CEN) even without a trade deal

From 2021, organic food produced in GB can no longer display the EU Organic emblem. More importantly, until the EU assigns ‘equivalence status’ to UK standards, organic producers may not be able to export their products to the EU at all. This ‘equivalence status’ is still a point of discussion and at the time of writing the outcome is not yet known.

By contrast, organic food produced in the EU will continue to be accepted in the UK after 1 January 2021.

The EU protected food name scheme enables consumers to identify foods with clear regional provenance. Here’s a summary of the changes after the end of the transition period:

• Existing protected products will be protected under the UK GI scheme. Producers will have 3 years to adopt the new UK logos
• Products that are protected in the whole island of Ireland, such as Irish Whiskey, Irish Cream, and Irish Poteen, will be protected both by EU and UK GI schemes
• NI producers will have to use the EU logos if a product is registered under the EU GI scheme. If the product is part of the UK GI scheme, the use of the UK logo is optional
• GI products that are protected in the EU can continue to use the EU logo in the UK

Examples of household (non-edible) products are: cosmetics, electricals and electronics, fireworks, personal protective equipment, textiles and toys.

Responsible person. For specific product categories (e.g. cosmetic, or products bearing a CE mark), labels will need to indicate details of an authorised product representative resident in the market they are sold in.

General product safety. The EU General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC (GPSD) ensures that businesses only sell safe products and that consumers are informed about specific risks. It covers all product categories, except when these have specific regulations, for example pharmaceuticals, medical devices or food.

In the UK, this directive is implemented by The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR), which will apply to products being sold in the UK from 1 January 2021. Where there’s crossover with the GPSR/GPSD, the product-specific legislation usually takes precedence.

CE and UKCA markings.  In the EU market, the CE mark is compulsory on many products, especially devices, regardless of the country of production.

From 1 January 2021, how CE and UKCA markings are used will change.

From 1 January 2021, the CLP (Classification, Labelling and Packaging) regulation for the classification and labelling of substances and mixtures will be translated into the GB CLP Regulation. Labelling rules will continue as they are, although that may change over time.

From 1 January 2021, the UK will adopt its own Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulation for the import and export of certain hazardous chemicals.

Companies will need distinct product information files (PIF) for the UK and the EU. This might require relabelling those products currently registered both for the United Kingdom/European Union since the location of the Responsible Person and PIF must be identified in both cases.

In addition to the changes related to the CE/UKCA mandatory compliance markings and the Responsible Person (RP) details, the UK is going to adopt the current EU harmonised electrical standards in the short-term.

Toys will be subject to the generic changes including CE/UKCA mark.

Textiles will be subject to the generic label changes. The current EU legislation will be adopted and supported by the UK Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012.

Contact us today today to find out how we can help you navigate your way through the regulations.