Classic ‘meaty’ snacks such as roast beef Monster Munch may have to be renamed under Labour’s EU reset deal.
Favourites such as chicken and mushroom Pot Noodles and Smiths Bacon Fries – which are actually vegetarian – could also fall foul of proposed food labelling rules.
The EU changes indicate that producers will not be able to get round the problem by calling them beef or bacon ‘flavoured’.
Brussels bureaucrats would ban meaty terms unless ingredients include ‘the edible parts of animals’.
Dozens of vegetarian snacks are flavoured using soy, yeast, herbs and spices rather than real meat.
Walkers Smoky Bacon and Roast Chicken crisps could also be hit, putting pressure on Britain’s £5.4billion-a-year savoury snack sector. If the EU legislation agreed last week passes its final hurdle, it could be enforced in Britain from next year.
Sir Keir’s deal on food standards, known as ‘dynamic alignment’ in Brussels, means handing oversight of trade in food, plant and agricultural products back to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and effectively becoming a rule-taker – even over future new regulations – while having no say over them.
It is understood the UK Food Standards Agency has said that the UK would be ‘subject’ to the new labelling rules unless UK-EU negotiators agree to exempt certain products.
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Pot Noodle may have to remove the word ‘chicken’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Bacon Fries may have to remove the word ‘bacon’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
Under Keir Starmer’s deal, Monster Munch may have to remove the word ‘beef’ and replace it with something else if new EU rules pass their final hurdle and the UK doesn’t agree any exemptions
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘If people want to be able to say something has a meaty taste, what’s it got to do with these know-nothing bureaucrats? It’s absurd.
‘The Labour Government is slowly trying to slide back into Europe through the back door.’
Mark Francois, Chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said: ‘Things are clearly coming to a crunch, when we are even going to become a rule-taker from Brussels on crisps and snacks.
‘If we can’t even hold the line over a packet of Monster Munch or some Bacon Fries, what hope do we have over rejoining the Customs Union?’
Frank Furedi, Executive Director of the MCC Brussels think tank, said: ‘Brexit was about taking back control of British laws.
‘Yet this weak Labour government seems ready to sign up to whatever rules Brussels invents next.
‘The planned deal could force the UK to adopt new EU labelling requirements, imposing unnecessary costs on much-loved British brands.
‘Laws affecting Britain should be decided in Westminster by elected MPs and not by Eurocrats in Brussels.’
Keir Starmer and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced their ‘reset’ deal last May
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Keir Starmer’s deal meant accepting ‘bonkers’ Brussels rules and that it was ‘regulation without representation’
Frank Furedi, Executive Director of the MCC Brussels think tank, hit out at Keir Starmer’s deal, saying ‘Brexit was about taking back control of British laws’
Joel Scott-Halkes, of the WePlanet NGO, said Sir Keir’s deal threatened to choke off growth in emerging sectors that have boomed since Brexit, adding: ‘By agreeing to sign up to the latest loopy rules from Brussels’ food-labelling police, the British Government could end up kneecapping our promising biotech and food technology sector.
‘New start-ups in lab-grown meat and plant-based alternatives are attracting funding and creating hundreds of jobs.’
Ministers admitted at the weekend that thousands of businesses who don’t trade with the EU may get hit under the deal, having to prepare for the changes anyway.
Officials released new documents yesterday stating that, while checks and paperwork on agricultural products traveling between the UK and EU will be reduced under the deal, the government ‘anticipates an increase in check rates’ on products traded with non-EU nations.
They did not provide an estimate for how much they expect this to cost businesses who may have diverged from the EU since Brexit. Most businesses trade within the UK alone or with non-EU nations.
Firms will also ‘need to use EU digital systems’ for processing some goods and introduce other potentially costly ‘operational changes’ to ensure they’re complying with Brussels rules.
Around 500,000 businesses will be affected, including ‘firms operating entirely within Great Britain who do not currently trade directly with the EU.’
The deal on food standards was part of a wider agreement with the EU last May which included starting talks on a youth mobility scheme and handing Brussels twelve years more of fishing rights in UK waters in exchange for the ‘dynamic alignment’ deal, which the Government believes will boost the UK economy.
Ministers want the new food standards deal to be in force by mid-2027 and are urging businesses to start preparing.
The Government did not deny that snacks may have to rename, saying: ‘This is pure speculation.’
