法律新闻BITE:2026年6月食品和饮料季刊

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement between the UK and the EU:Progress and guidance This quarter, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has published a report: “UK-EU agritrade:making an SPS agreement work – Government Response”. This is a response to a February report that made 22recommendations on alignment with the EU sanitary and phytosanitary policy, implementation timeline, a UK-wideapproach, biosecurity at the border, border infrastructure, and resourcing and oversight. At the end of June, Defra followed this up with guidance on “preparing your business” for the SPS agreement(Guidance), confirming that the intention is for the new agreement (currently being negotiated) to take effect inmid-2027. The Guidance covers specific areas (animal breeding, border control posts, fish and shellfish, genetictechnologies, horticulture, logistics/ hauliers, organics and veterinary) but also includes guidance for general foodmanufacturing, processing and standards, and food production, plants, animals and associated sectors. It is important for food business operators to be aware that any agreement reached will affect food and drink beingsupplied only to the UK market, as well as products that are supplied to the EU. Changes under the agreement willinvolve compliance with EU rules for food standards, safety, labelling and regulated products (such as additives,novel foods, flavourings and food-contact materials). Therefore, where there has been divergence in the EU on thesematters post-Brexit, products (and processes and operations) may need to be reviewed. For example, ready-to-eatfood producers will need to comply with new EU food safety criteria for listeria, and there will be new/additional/revisedmaximum contaminant levels for contaminants such as PFAS , heavy metals, mycotoxins and plant toxins. A positive for many will be simplification around on-pack names and addresses. It is expected that operators will beable to use either a UK or an EU food or feed business operator address (whereas currently, foods/feeds supplied inGreat Britain need a UK address, and foods/feeds supplied in the EU need an EU address, meaning multiple on-packnames and addresses where products are supplied to both markets). However, given that negotiations are currentlycontinuing, it may be sensible to await confirmation before changing current name and address labels. The Guidance provides links tosign up for Defra email alerts and the SPS readiness mailing list to receive the latestupdates. UK Deposit Return Scheme (DRS): DRS logo and theReturn Handling Fee published Fines from French regulator for organic food “cartel” The French competition authority has announced that it had imposed total fines of€12.67 million on several businesses involved in a more than seven-year cartel in theorganic food sector (a rapidly expanding sector), running from March 2017 to October2024. The UK DRS is due to launch on 1 October 2027, and introduces new legal obligationsfor producers and retailers of in-scope drinks containers. Exchange for Change(EfC), the body responsible for the design and delivery of the DRS across England,Scotland and Northern Ireland, has published the approved regulatory requirementswith instructions on how producers must apply the DRS logo to all in-scope drinkscontainers. The use of this logo will be mandatory from 1 October 2027 for all PETplastic bottles and aluminium and steel cans included in the scheme. The authority found that the participants agreed to keep many organic brandsseparated between two sales channels – (i) specialist organic stores, and (ii)mainstream supermarket chains) – in order to prevent the same brands from beingsold in both channels at the same time, making it harder for shoppers to compareprices. The authority found that this reduced price competition and helped specialistorganic retailers avoid pressure from lower supermarket prices. The DRS logo must be displayed in all in-scope containers, and there are size, colourformats and production specifications for it. It will enable consumers to recogniseitems that can be returned for a deposit refund. The investigation found that, in addition to the trade union Synadis Bio, severalbusinesses played active roles in the cartel, including Greenweez, Les Comptoirs dela Bio and ITM Entreprises, all of which were fined. Synadis Bio received the largestpenalty at €10 million, Greenweez was fined €1.85 million, with the amount sharedjointly and severally with its parent company, Carrefour. ITM Entreprises was fined€740,000, also jointly and severally with its parent company, Les Mousquetaires. LesComptoirs de la Bio received a fine of €80,000. EfC has also established the Return Handling Fee, which is payable to retailersoperating return points to compensate them for the costs of collecting andprocessing returned containers. The current proposed rates are: •Manual return points– 3p per container.•Automatic return points:–Tier 1–