Food law | UK Regulatory Outlook July 2024

King's Speech 2024 outlines HFSS restrictions

The government has outlined in its legislative agenda that it plans to restrict advertising of junk food to children along with the sale of high caffeine energy drinks to children. However the King's Speech lacks the exact specifics of what these restrictions will entail. Therefore while it is hard to comment on who and what will be caught under this new legislation, this announcement illustrates that high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) restrictions are still very much on the government's agenda and that it intends to introduce new restrictions. Following the raft of delays in HFSS restrictions that we have seen so far, it will be interesting to understand the legislative timeline under the new government.

UK to approve lab-grown meat for pet food

Pet food company, Meatly, has become the first company in Europe to receive regulatory approval to place lab-grown meat for pet food on the market. Meatly's chicken meat is cultivated directly from animal cells, and is now  permitted for use in pet food in the UK. Meatly's chicken will soon be available for feed manufacturers to buy.

Regulatory approval was provided by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (which regulates animal feed), and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the approval acts as a significant milestone for cultivated meats.

The Food Standards Agency (which regulates human food) has welcomed this innovation within the animal feed sector.

This development will be welcomed and closely monitored by businesses seeking to bring similarly innovative techniques and products to market. For example, it will be interesting to review the consumer acceptance of cell-cultivated meats, and the labelling declaration requirements in relation to the pet feed manufactured from cell-cultivated meat .

Defra's new secretary of state sets out five key priorities

Defra has revealed five main policy priorities under the new Labour government. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, announced on X that his core priorities will be: cleaning up British waterways, creating a roadmap to a zero-waste economy, boosting Britain's food security, ensuring nature's recovery and protecting communities from flooding.

In light of this, we expect that the government will prioritise the further progression and development of the extended producer responsibility and deposit return schemes (see Products for more) and in relation to measures to help with food security, this may include more genetically modified and innovative food products being brought to market.

Next wine reforms come into force

The Wine (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024 came into force on 15 July 2024 and amend assimilated law (retained EU law). Notably, the regulations prohibit the marketing of a product using the terms “ice wine”, “icewine” or “ice-wine” unless that product is a wine which is made exclusively from grapes that are naturally frozen on the vine, as well as updating the list of approved oenological practices. See our January issue for further wine reforms already in force.

As previously reported, the Conservative government had announced its intention to continue reforms in this area, with the third phase of consultations concluding on 10 May 2024. However, the results of this consultation were yet to be published and it will be for the new Labour government to pick these up should it wish to do so.