Please see below the UK Government’s notification of a public consultation on a proposal to legislate for new labelling requirements on agri-food products to be applied across the whole of Great Britain, (England, Scotland and Wales). This proposal provides for ‘Not for EU’ labelling requirements, applicable in Northern Ireland, to be applied to agri-food products across Great Britain from 1 October 2024.
The consultation states in particular:
- these are the same product-level labelling requirements as those required by the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) as follows:
- from 1 October 2024 all meat and dairy products will need to be labelled individually (from 1 July 2025 this will be expanded to all retail goods in the scope of Regulation (EU) 2023/1231);
- a significant number of goods are exempt from any kind of labelling, in particular shelf stable food products;
- the Great Britain wide labelling is a “placing on the market” requirement, not an import requirement.
- for enforcement, three options are being considered: companies will get tailored advice on the labelling, or business self-reports compliance or there will be spot checks.
- DEFRA considers exemptions for small and medium sized businesses and have transition regimes for goods already placed on the market.
The public consultation process is open until Friday 15 March. Further information and the online survey can be found here - Marking of Retail Goods Consultation - Defra - Citizen Space.