Oven chips, crisps and cakes already in the supply chain could be rendered unsellable under new post-Brexit food trade rules being negotiated with Brussels, industry leaders have warned.
Ministers are pursuing a food and drink trade agreement with the EU that promises to ease costs and bureaucracy for exporters — but the deal will trigger at least 400 regulatory changes across the food sector, and could make it illegal to sell products already grown, frozen or stored if they were produced using pesticides that the EU has since banned.
Karen Betts, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, reportedly warned the consequences could be severe for businesses caught mid-supply-chain.
"If you look at potatoes going into oven chips or crisps, it's a three-year cycle from planting your potato to it appearing in an oven chip in a supermarket freezer," she said. "So if your potato was grown using a pesticide that is not approved by the EU, then potentially, when it gets to supermarket sale in three years' time, it is not going to be allowed to be sold."
The same problem applies to baked goods. Grain harvested using a pesticide that Brussels subsequently outlaws could already be sitting in storage — held for a year, then milled and held again, before eventually going into a cake.
"Businesses are going to have to change that supply chain because that pesticide is no longer approved," Betts is understood ot have said.
Closer alignment with the EU has exposed a regulatory gulf that built up during the years since Brexit. Industry bodies have now reportedly counted more than 400 separate amendments that businesses across the food and drink sector will need to absorb.
"When we left the EU food laws didn't change. But in [aligning closer] with the EU, we've identified more than 400 amendments that companies will have to comply with where EU law has changed while UK law has not," Betts told reporters.
Businesses operating primarily in the domestic market face the steepest challenge — having had little reason to monitor regulatory shifts in Brussels, many will now find themselves significantly behind. Sources speaking with The Times say larger companies have also privately raised serious concerns, despite being better placed to track legislative changes.
Hundreds of laws covering animal welfare will also need to change if the agreement is signed.
The Food and Drink Federation is lobbying ministers to ensure transition periods are built into any deal, allowing food already in the supply chain to continue to be sold legally.
"If we don't, we'll end up with loads of food waste and those oven chips being dumped when you know really they shouldn't be," Betts is reported to have said.
Betts said that "ultimately [and] strategically" closer alignment with the EU "is the right thing to do."
Ministers hope negotiations on the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement — which have been under discussion since May last year — will conclude by the summer. The government will then introduce legislation to incorporate EU rules into UK law.
A government spokesman said: "Our food and drink deal will deliver billions for British industry; a smooth transition is critical to unlocking that growth. The deal will mean fresher food on more supermarket shelves quicker, better export opportunities for our farmers and stronger food security for the future.
"We are working closely with farmers and producers to give them more information on getting ready for new arrangements. We will continue to provide more support once deadlines and processes are clearer."
