Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme: Labelling requirements

From 1 July 2025, additional food products that move through the Retail Movement Scheme must be individually labelled. This includes pet food, fruit and vegetables, fish and composite products such as pizza.

Composite products are products that contain both products of plant origin and processed products of animal origin (POAO) for human consumption.

‘Processing’ means any action that substantially alters the original product, including heating, smoking, curing, maturing, drying, marinating, extraction, extrusion or a combination of those processes.

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.