EU guidelines might take a chew out of roast beef Monster Munch… and hen and mushroom Pot Noodle is not protected both!
Beloved British snacks such as Roast Beef Monster Munch, Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodles and Smiths Bacon Fries face having to be re-named under Sir Keir Starmer‘s EU ‘reset’ deal.
New red tape agreed by Brussels bureaucrats would ban vegetarian product labels from using ‘meaty’ terms like ‘chicken’, ‘bacon’ or ‘beef’ to describe their flavour.
The new EU food labelling rules state that to use these terms, the ingredients of the product must contain the ‘edible parts of animals’ that provide the flavour.
However, Roast Beef Monster Munch, Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodles and Smiths Bacon Fries are among dozens of British snack staples which are vegetarian but flavoured using soy, yeast, herbs and spices rather than any meat.
Walkers Smoky Bacon or Roast Chicken crisps could also be hit, putting Britain’s £5.4billion a year savoury snack sector at risk.
If the EU legislation agreed last week passes its final hurdle, it could be enforced in Britain from next year, when Sir Keir has promised to start shackling Britain to Brussels’ rulebook on food standards.
The deal, known as ‘dynamic alignment’ in Brussels, means handing oversight of trade in food and agricultural products back to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and effectively becoming a rule-taker – even over future new regulations – while having no say over them.
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Pot Noodle may have to remove the word ‘chicken’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Bacon Fries may have to remove the word ‘bacon’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Monster Munch may have to remove the word ‘beef’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
It is understood that the UK Food Standards Agency has said that the UK would be ‘subject’ to the new labelling rules under Sir Keir’s deal.
It means that, unless UK-EU negotiators agree to exempt certain products, dozens of beloved vegetarian and plant-based British snacks face having to be re-named or re-labelled.
The EU proposals also indicate that producers would not be able to simply get around the new rules by calling products ‘chicken-flavoured’ or ‘beef-flavoured’.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘What the hell has it got to do with Brussels?
‘If people want to be able to say something tastes like meat or has a meaty taste, what’s it got to do with these no-nothing bureaucrats? It’s absurd.
‘We will slowly slide under the control of the EU, have to accept the most bonkers rules and have no say in the matter at all.
‘The Labour Government is slowly trying to slide back into Europe through the back door.
‘This is the worst of all worlds. It’s like taxation without representation. This is regulation without representation.
‘But it’ll also damage our industry. The Government has been saying it will lead to fewer checks. But it will actually lead to massive amounts more of regulatory paperwork.’
Frank Furedi, Executive Director of the MCC Brussels think tank, said: ‘Brexit was about taking back control of British laws.
‘Yet this weak Labour government seems ready to sign up to whatever rules Brussels invents next.
Keir Starmer and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced their ‘reset’ deal last May
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Keir Starmer’s deal meant accepting ‘bonkers’ Brussels rules and that it was ‘regulation without representation’
Frank Furedi, Executive Director of the MCC Brussels think tank, hit out at Keir Starmer’s deal, saying ‘Brexit was about taking back control of British laws’
‘The planned deal could force the UK to adopt new EU labelling requirements, imposing unnecessary costs on much-loved British brands.
‘Laws affecting Britain should be decided in Westminster by elected MPs and not by Eurocrats in Brussels.’
Joel Scott-Halkes, of the WePlanet NGO, said Sir Keir’s deal threatened to choke off growth in emerging sectors which have boomed thanks to Britain being able to diverge from Brussels rules after Brexit, adding: ‘By agreeing to sign up to the latest loopy rules from Brussels’ food labelling police, the British government could end up kneecapping our promising biotech and food technology sector.
‘New start-ups in lab-grown meat and plant-based alternatives are attracting hundreds of millions in funding and creating hundreds of highly skilled jobs.
‘All of these benefits will go to China or the US if our UK companies can’t properly market or sell their products.’
It comes after ministers admitted at the weekend that thousands of businesses who don’t trade with the EU will get hit with costly Brussels red tape under the deal.
Firms – many of them smaller businesses – will have to prepare for the changes even if they don’t trade with the Continent or have started prioritising commerce with other parts of the world.
Officials released new documents yesterday stating that, while checks and paperwork on agricultural products traveling between the UK and EU will be reduced under the deal, the government ‘anticipates an increase in check rates’ on products traded with non-EU nations.
They did not provide an estimate for how much they expect this to cost businesses who may have diverged from the EU since Brexit. Most businesses trade within the UK alone or with non-EU nations.
Firms will also ‘need to use EU digital systems’ for processing some goods and introduce other potentially costly ‘operational changes’ to ensure they’re complying with Brussels rules.
Around 500,000 businesses will be affected, including ‘firms operating entirely within Great Britain who do not currently trade directly with the EU.’
A government spokesman did not deny that beloved British snacks could be forced to re-name, simply saying: ‘This is pure speculation.’
