This week in Brexitland, January 11, 2024

A closer look at the “Not For EU” labels on food and what it means for the larger Brexit debate - and food standards in Britain

I have had my own negative experience with the “new labelling system”, imposed upon us via the Windsor Framework, itself the inevitable outcome of Brexit. I bought some tomatoes at a large chain supermarket one day a few weeks back. Didn’t look at the packaging, just swiped it into the basket during a weekly shop. When I looked at it again after I’d got home and started unpacking the shopping, I noticed two things. One was that “Not for EU” was imprinted upon it; the second was that there was no “Best Before” date present anywhere. Odd, I thought and went on with what I was doing.

A few hours later, I wanted to use the tomatoes. The problem was, they were rotten. As in, completely off, unusable. Again, out of reflex, I went to look at the “Best Before” date before remembering that there wasn’t one.

What does my rotten tomatoes have to do with Brexit? Pretty much everything. And my worry is that this sort of thing will become much more widespread as time goes on and things along supply chains decay - again, as a direct result of Brexit.

You see, the “Not for EU” imprints are there because the UK government wanted to reduce the trade friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, friction that directly resulted from Brexit (the very same friction, if you will recall, that Boris Johnson said was fictional). That meant doing two things:

1). Making it clear that there was a distinction between goods meant only for consumption in the UK, and those destined for the EU- thus the “Not for EU” imprint, meaning all goods that were to stay in the UK were designated so on the face of the packaging and,

2). Having as many goods throughout the UK carry this “Not for EU” imprint where appropriate as possible, so that most things made in the UK meant for internal, UK consumption could be sold in Northern Ireland as well, with no need for goods from Great Britain to be sold in NI to be “specially made”.

Now, does that mean that because these goods are “Not for EU”, they carry lower standards than the stuff we used to get when we were still in the European Union? Technically, it shouldn’t. The food standards we had haven’t officially changed in any respect. However, by dint of Brexit, I strongly suspect things are not the same on the standards front, mostly by accident.

In the old days, let’s say Supermarket X got their tomatoes from Spain. They could be sure that the tomatoes stacked up to EU standards because they came from within the European Union. Also, there was zero goods friction at the border because we had freedom of movement for goods. Now, let’s say Supermarket X found getting stuff from Spain was hit or miss because of Brexit red tape (or at least, the spectre of red tape making the goods more expensive). So, they get them from Morocco now instead. If it’s going to be hard to get goods from anywhere in the world outside of the UK, you might as well get them as cheaply as possible, right? Only, now there’s more friction at the UK border than there ever used to be. Before Brexit, customs only had to do paperwork and checks on goods coming from outside the EU, which was a relatively small chunk of what was coming in - now, there is so much more to check, so it takes longer. Maybe the tomatoes from Morocco get stuck at Dover for a few days. Maybe, just maybe, there’s no “Best Before” date put on to let you know the tomatoes are way out of date by the time they hit the shelves - honest mistake? Basically, I think food standards in the UK are slipping by stealth, again, all because of Brexit.

I have no idea what is really going on here in terms of what is accidental and what is intentional mischief, other than what I’ve personally experienced a few times with goods having three qualities: “Not for EU’ stamped on them, no “Best Before” date anywhere, and the goods being unusable/inedible. Someone should be doing a major investigation of what is happening with our supply chains post-Brexit that allows this to be possible. I suspect it will if it gets worse - which I think it will, unfortunately.

In the meantime, my advice is to avoid any perishable goods that don’t have a “Best Before” date on them (check every time now). You don’t need to avoid “Not for EU” goods altogether, but give them more scrutiny than you would other perishable items you buy from here on.

Thanks for reading. If you haven’t subscribed, please do and I’ll be back next week with the worst of Brexit.