Why Brexit is a Great Opportunity for Weird Foods

By Megan Tatum 16 July 2021  (see original online article here)

Following public hostility within the EU during the 1990s towards Genetically Modified Foods (GM), EU regulators introduced a legal compromise in the form of regulation 258/97 in May 1997, creating a new legal instrument and classification for ‘Novel Foods’.

Applied to any foods that hadn’t been widely consumed prior to the introduction of the Novel Foods regulation, Novel Foods required that additional regulatory hoops were put in place to prove that products were safe for general consumption.

Now, as of 2021, a plethora of products are now subject to the EU’s Novel Foods application process, from edible insects and rapeseed oil to chia seeds and CBD, with the latter promising a lucrative industry if these extra regulations were to be relaxed, something post-Brexit UK is in the perfect position to champion.