A package is being pushed to streamline food and feed safety rules, with provisional agreement sought with the European Parliament by year’s end and a focus on monitoring trilogue talks due to major shifts in timelines and data protection.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the FSA has opened a consultation to authorize 16 regulated novel foods, including human milk oligosaccharides and derivatives from bacterial strains, with risk management and labeling to be considered; Food Standards Scotland is running a parallel consultation, and UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary alignment could shift GB approvals to EU conditions once in force.

BSI released BS ISO 20001:2026, the world’s first standard for a food loss and waste management system, offering a voluntary framework across the food supply chain to prevent, monitor, and continually improve waste management, developed with WRAP.

The UK and EU plan a second Brussels summit on 20 November to finalise a food deal, focusing on aligning UK health laws with EU standards to reduce costs and red tape for farmers and food businesses, with potential caveats from the Conservative Party on dynamic alignment.

The EU Council agreed negotiating positions on the remaining Omnibus X safety simplification package, covering maximum residue levels, plant protection products, biocidal products, feed additives and GM foods; measures include lowering residue limits to technical zero for hazardous pesticides, fast-track approvals for low-risk biocontrols, longer first approval (15 years) and renewals (25 years), with 13-year data protection for many products, while debates continue over impact assessments amid concerns from scientists and UN experts.