{"id":219433,"date":"2025-06-27T19:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T19:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219433\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T19:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T19:54:11","slug":"ms-boss-says-extending-northern-ireland-food-labelling-is-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219433\/","title":{"rendered":"M&S boss says extending Northern Ireland food labelling is madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Campbell<\/p>\n

BBC News NI economics and business editor<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The chief executive of Marks and Spencer said the labels were “bureaucratic madness”<\/p>\n

The decision to extend post-Brexit food labelling on products being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland has been criticised by the chief executive of Marks & Spencer.<\/p>\n

The “Not for EU” labels have been phased in since 2023<\/a> with the final phase to be implemented next week, but the labels are likely to become unnecessary when the UK and EU finalise a new agrifood deal.<\/p>\n

Stuart Machin said it was “bureaucratic madness” and the new deal “can’t come soon enough”.<\/p>\n

The government said it will “continue to work closely” with businesses and support them in implementing these arrangements.<\/p>\n

The labelling is a requirement of the Windsor Framework<\/a>, the revised Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

It is part of a broader package of changes to the 2019 Brexit deal for Northern Ireland – known as the NI Protocol.<\/p>\n

The protocol kept Northern Ireland inside the EU single market for goods, which allowed a free flow of goods across the Irish border.<\/p>\n

However it made trading from Great Britain to Northern Ireland more difficult and expensive.<\/p>\n

‘Bureaucratic madness’<\/p>\n

Checks and controls on GB food products entering Northern Ireland have been some of the biggest practical difficulties.<\/p>\n

Under the Windsor Framework, UK public health and safety standards apply for all retail food and drink in the UK internal market.<\/p>\n

That means GB traders who are sending food for sale in Northern Ireland face reduced checks and paperwork compared to the protocol.<\/p>\n

The flipside of this is the introduction of the “Not for EU” labels on GB food products, to give a level of assurance to the EU that products will not wrongly enter its single market.<\/p>\n

Mr Machin said the final phase of labelling would mean more than 1,000 Marks & Spencer products destined for Northern Ireland would need to have a “Not For EU” label.<\/p>\n

Another 400 would need to go through additional checks in the so-called red lane at NI ports.<\/p>\n

“Quite frankly it’s bureaucratic madness, confusing for customers, and completely unnecessary,” Mr Machin said.<\/p>\n

Certain products labelled<\/p>\n

In May the government announced an “agreement to agree” which will ultimately see all of the UK realigning with EU agrifood rules.<\/p>\n

In response to Mr Machin’s comments, a government spokesperson said the labelling will only be required for certain food and drink products.<\/p>\n

“Many things like cakes, bread, pasta and alcohol will not need to be labelled,” it added.<\/p>\n

“And when implemented, agreements we secured at the UK-EU Summit will reduce the need for this labelling and make it easier to move goods between the UK and Europe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Campbell BBC News NI economics and business editor Getty Images The chief executive of Marks and Spencer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-219433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114757085927458559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}