UK Food Law 2020?

Dr Naomi Salmon
Aberystwyth Law School

4/25/17 1
Frederick Accum, A Treatise on Adulterations of
Food and Culinary Poisons, 1820

There is death in
the pot.

2
Punch, 14th August 1855

If you please, Sir, Mother

says, will you let her have a
quarter of a pound of your
best tea to kill the rats with,
and a ounce of chocolate as
would get rid of the black
beetles?

3
 Codex Alimentarius
The legal landscape WHO http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius
/roster/detail/en/c/471647

A very simple illustration.... UN /

FAO
FAO
Transatlantic
Trade & The EU - TFEU bestows &
defines competence of the EU International
Investment trade law (WTO)
Partnership institutions in specific policy https://www.wto.org/

(TTIP) areas
negotiations
failed.. But
that is not the
end of the EU secondary legislation EU Member
States industry
game note (Directives, Regulations, actors trading in
CETA!! Decisions, Opinions) International food
http://ec.europa.eu/ market .
trade/policy/in-focu
s/ceta/index_en.htm
France
Czech UK
Republic

Food
industry
4
 The Practical Reality and
Mechanics of UK Food Law Today
WTO
EU Food Law
(NB. EFSA, EC, ECJ)
Regulation
1881/2006
EC Act 1972

UK Food Law
Contaminants in Food (Wales) Regulations 2007

4/25/17 5
Conflicting views - Brexit a bright future!
George Eustace, Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food - Brexit will bring an end to food industry red tape. The food
industry can look forward to a much more sensible, proportionate and
coherent approach to regulation. Well have measures in place to
protect food safety, thats very important. Well have measures in place to
protect consumers. But when there are measures that are unnecessary,
or requirements for reporting things or keeping records that dont add
very much and we can all think of many, many instances of these things
well actually well be able to change the approach to that.

He also insisted that Brussels red tape can be cut without compromising
access to the EU market of 500million consumers.. ??!!

4/25/17 6
Conflicting views - Brexit alarm bells!
Much of the recent discussions between Theresa May and Donald
Trump were centred around a trade deal. The US is very keen to
get a new deal and why wouldnt it, when it has a trade deficit of
around 50bn with the UK? So on the food front, I wonder what
products are likely to appear on our supermarket shelves. How
about bleached chicken or steroid-treated beef with a side salad
made up of GM veg all washed down with milk from a bovine
somatotropin treated cow? .. My belief is the UK governments
priority list for trade with the US will not have food on the first or
even second page. So lets start to look forward to that tasty meal I
just described to you

Chris Elliott, Professor of Food Safety, founder of the Institute for

Global Food Security, 8th Feb.2017. http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/brexit-us-foods/
4/25/17 7
 Lets consider a couple of practical examples.
Contaminants in Food (Wales) Regulations 2007
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2007/840/regulation/2/made

Campylobactor a very persistent problem!

Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, 853/2004 and 854/2004. Also
Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 and note
proposal to amend this Reg.

Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006

4/25/17 8
Some concluding thoughts from me.
Food didnt even feature in the campaigns in the run-up to
the referendum.
We have George Eustace and Andrea Leadsom, Secretary
of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at the
helm for food and environment...
There is still far from enough attention being focused on
food.
A brief shortage of courgettes and salads in February
indicates what might happen.
A peoples Brexit?? As far as food goes, I rather doubt it!
After all, where are the Big Bucks in small-scale, local,
sustainable food?

4/25/17 9
And some final words from the experts....
In a post-Brexit world, the UK will no longer be part of a
trade block sufficiently powerful to stand up to tough
negotiators such as the USA. The UK will have lost both the
legacy of Empire and bargaining strength from EU
membership. (FRC, 2017)

The task that DEFRA and HM Government ought to have

hard-wired into its negotiating position is how to deliver a
commitment to sustainable diets from sustainable food
systems. This message is not currently apparent from the
few signals of HM Government thinking on food and farming
so far. (FRC, Feb.2017) 4/25/17 10