Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme: Labelling requirements
NI Retail Movement Scheme phase 2: Products that need individual product labels from 1 October 2024
From 1 October 2024, in addition to the phase 1 products, all milk and dairy products moving to Northern Ireland under the Retail Movement Scheme will need to be individually labelled. A fuller list is provided below.
From this date, all meat and dairy products in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) would also need to be individually labelled.
- all milk, buttermilk or cream
- whey
- butter
- butteroil
- caseins
- anhydrous milk fat (AMF)
- cheese
- yogurt
- kefir
- koumiss
- viili or fil
- smetana
- fil
- rjaženka
- rūgušpiens
- ice cream
- UHT milk
Phase 2 does not include composite products that contain products from this list. For example, a chilled pizza with processed cheese on it. These come into force in phase 3.
However, it is not a composite product if a plant product adds special characteristics to a product of animal origin, like flavour or sweetness or acts as a thickening or decorative agent. Therefore, it needs to be individually labelled. For example, if herbs are added to cheese or fruit to yoghurt, they are dairy products as the plant product adds flavour.
30-day transition period
The UK government recognises that there will already be products on the market in Northern Ireland when each new phase comes into effect. Therefore, there will be a 30-day transition period at the start of each phase. This means that goods that are already on the market will not need to be relabelled and will be able to be sold during the transition period.
After each transition period ends, relevant goods must be labelled with the words ‘Not for EU‘ on boxes and individual products in line with these requirements. This means:
- Food products that were moved into Northern Ireland before 1 October 2023 must be individually labelled by 31 October 2023.
- Phase 2 products that were moved into Northern Ireland before 1 October 2024 must be individually labelled by 31 October 2024.
- Phase 3 products that were moved into Northern Ireland before 1 July 2025 must be individually labelled by 31 July 2025.