法律新闻BITE:2026年3月食品和饮料季刊

The New European CommissionStrategy on Life Austria – Nextfor Legislation Restricting HFSSAdvertising? UK and EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Alignment The UK government has announced that it will align with the EU’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) legislation from mid-2027, following trade negotiations. Various legislation will come under the scope of the agreement, including legislationrelating to food and feed safety; food supplements; fortified foods; nutrition and health claims; and nutrition labelling. Pesticide and biocide regulations, including around matters such as maximum residue levels and authorisation of activesubstances, will also come within the scope of the new SPS agreement (which commentators view as significant, becauseof current divergence between the EU and Great Britain – and not entirely expected). We reported in December’s edition of newsBITE that theHouse of Lords had reported on exemptions for brandadvertising from UK advertising restrictions on “lesshealthy” foods, and the Advertising Standards Agency(ASA) had issued final guidance on this topic. Therestrictions came into force in early January. The agenda for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Board Meeting for March includes an update on how the FSA is preparingfor a UK-EU SPS agreement. The report notes that the proposed timeline is “ambitious” and will require both the FSA andindustry to “move at pace to be ready”. It also recognises that the practical implications of an SPS agreement will involvechanges across several areas, including “future legislative alignment, approaches to managing incidents, the way in whichcertain border processes operate and how market authorisations are handled”. Perhaps heralding similar changes in Austria, a recentstudy from the Centre for Nutrition Advance Knowledgein Food and Farming examined the exposure of Austrianchildren to high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) food and drinkadvertisements on TV and the changes in advertisingfollowing the implementation of Austria’s self-regulatoryHFSS marketing restrictions. The study compared theWHO Europe Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) classificationof permitted and nonpermitted foods with Austria’s ownNPM. It will be particularly interesting to monitor “market authorisations”, which essentially means applications to authoriseproducts such as additives, flavourings, food contact materials, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), precision bredorganisms and novel foods, among others. Of course, such applications in the UK post-Brexit have needed to be madeto the FSA, rather than the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA), and it is not clear how an authorisation by the UKauthority will translate to the EU market, although the “common understanding” between the European Commission andthe UK notes that each party “will respect each other’s decision-making autonomy”. Those UK businesses that already export to one or more EU countries will be well placed ahead of the changes, becausetheir products already need to meet EU requirements to be lawfully marketed in those countries; those EU businesseswho supply to Great Britain will likely welcome this news, as it will avoid the need to consider any potential divergence.However, those who only supply domestic markets in Great Britain may need to adapt processes, update supply chains,amend labels or, in some cases, reformulate products (bearing in mind that certain substances have been prohibited orrestricted in the EU post-Brexit, such as titanium dioxide). The study found that the advertising rate for foodadvertisements increased throughout the dayand culminated during child/teen peak viewingtimes. Emotional themes were more common inadvertisements that were not permitted, compared topermitted advertisements. The study concluded thatfurther regulation is needed to protect children fromthe influence of HFSS food and drink. Despite theself-regulatory measures currently in place, it foundchildren and teenagers in Austria remain highly exposedto HFSS food and drink marketing. The government is conducting a “call for evidence” to understand business impacts, which closes on 23 April. Potentiallyaffected businesses can share their views through a link on DEFRA’s overview of the reasons for the changes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) meetsEnforcement of EU Food Law! The European Commission has launched TraceMap, anew AI platform designed to help national authoritiesdetect food fraud, contamination and other agrifoodrisks more quickly. Drawing on data from the RapidAlert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), the TradeControl and Expert System (TRACES) and the Alert andCooperation Network (ACN), TraceMap is intended helpthe authorities identify links between operators andconsignments, detect suspicious trade or productionpatterns, and support more targeted controls. It isreported that a pilot version of the tool was recentlyused in the investigation into infant formula made withcontaminated arachidonic acid (ARA) oil, helpin