Written questions by Burghart.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Explanatory Memorandum for European Union legislation within the scope of the UK/EU Withdrawal Agreement and Windsor Framework, COM(2023)201, June 2023, whether (a) Great British and (b) Northern Irish producers will be required to rename domestically-produced (i) jam and (ii) marmalade for sale in (A) Great Britain and (B) Northern Ireland as a consequence of the UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement; and whether other types of food will be affected by revised EU food labelling requirements.

As part of the UK-EU SPS Agreement currently being negotiated, the Government is making a sovereign choice in the national interest to align in some areas where it makes sense to do so. Once in force, the SPS agreement will mean less red tape and fewer costs for agrifood businesses trading with the EU.As set out in the Government’s recently published announcement on legislation in scope, this is expected to include among other rules on fruit jams, jellies & marmalades ((Directive 2001/113/EC). The full list remains subject to ongoing negotiations and may therefore change.The EU recently updated its rules on jams, jellies and marmalade, which will entail some changes to labelling of marmalade – requiring producers to label as ‘citrus marmalade’ or specify the type of citrus fruits used, which most UK producers already do.Jam producers will need to comply with EU rules on labelling of jams, extra jams and reduced sugar jams and ensure their labelling reflects compositional requirements, which will entail change for some producers.Under Windsor Framework commitments, Northern Ireland has already laid amending rules to implement the recent EU changes. These were laid on 20 January 2026 and will come into operation on the 14 June 2026.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) sale and (b) marketing of meat-branded products that do not contain meat will be permitted under the proposed sanitary and phytosanitary deal with the EU; and whether other types of product may be banned.

part of the UK-EU SPS Agreement currently being negotiated, the Government is making a sovereign choice in the national interest to align in some areas where it makes sense to do so, as set out in the Government’s recently published announcement on legislation in scope. This includes the marketing standards elements of Regulation (EU) 1308/201, which will apply to GB once the agreement is implemented. The hon. Member refers to the EU’s draft legislation seeking to amend these rules, including proposals to prevent use of meat-related terms for the marketing of products which do not contain meat. This would not prevent these products being sold altogether, only how they are marketed for sale. Defra cannot speculate on what other products may be captured in scope of these proposals as they have not yet been adopted, but the department is monitoring their progress through the EU legislative process.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 43(m) of the publication entitled Safeguarding the Union, published on 31 January 2024, what progress his Department has made on developing legislative proposals to confirm the application of the Windsor Framework labelling requirements across the UK.

The Government confirmed at the end of September that we would no longer proceed with the introduction of mandatory GB-wide ‘not for EU’ labelling from the beginning of October 2024, as originally proposed. We will put in place the legislative powers necessary to apply labelling requirements across Great Britain in a targeted way, should that be needed to safeguard the supply of supermarket supplies into Northern Ireland. We will set out further details in due course and will not hesitate to intervene if necessary to support Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.