Burnham’s Brexit Deal Means Fewer Food Checks, 2028 at Earliest
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is due to finalize a food and plant health deal with the EU on November 20. It is forecast to add £5.1bn a year to trade and cut border checks, but Britain must follow EU rules, with effects from bacon to organic eggs.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is due to finalize a food and plant health deal with the European Union at a November 20 summit in Brussels. Burnham’s Brexit deal means far fewer border checks on food, but Britain must align its law with EU rules, with the first changes expected in 2028 at the earliest.
The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement covers food, plant and animal health. It is predicted to deliver a £5.1bn-a-year boost to trade.
The deal would also cut paperwork and red tape with the EU and between Britain and Northern Ireland. It ends “not for EU” labels on food.
The price is rule-taking. Asked whether he would pursue closer ties with Europe “even if you have to be a rule-taker”, Burnham replied: “Well, that’s where we’ve ended up but it is about working in partnership where we can.”
Britain has left most inherited EU rules unchanged since Brexit took practical effect on December 31, 2020, while Brussels has kept legislating. Under the deal, UK law must change to match European rules, and some farmers and producers may have to alter their methods, which could push up prices.
There are more than 400 core pieces of primary EU SPS legislation, plus thousands of technical standards. The UK is estimated to need regulatory changes to mirror some 76 core directives and regulations.
The effects reach the breakfast table. In 2023 the EU significantly lowered legal limits for nitrites and nitrates, used to cure bacon. UK limits are unchanged, though major supermarkets told their bacon makers to cut levels below EU standards.
Firms that make curing salts for smaller producers will have to meet the new EU limits. About 120 companies make Wiltshire Cure Bacon, which uses a traditional live brine. Unless UK negotiators win a carve-out, they will have to prove the process stays within strict EU residue limits.
Orange juice rules will also change. In Britain, juice from which natural sugars have been removed by filtration or fermentation cannot be called “fruit juice”. The EU now allows it to be sold as “reduced-sugar fruit juice”, provided sugar is cut by at least 30 per cent and no artificial sweeteners are used. Britain will adopt that rule.
New EU labelling rules also require “from concentrate” to appear close to the product name rather than in smaller text on cartons.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned that the British organic egg sector is under threat. Farmers currently rely on an exemption to buy non-organically reared pullets, young hens up to 18 weeks old, and move them to organic farms.
Updated EU rules require hens to be raised organically from three days old. The NFU has told government negotiators the exemption must be preserved because the UK has virtually no commercial organic pullet-rearing infrastructure.
