Reforms to the market authorisation process for regulated products come into force

Certain food and feed products, known as regulated products, including food additives and flavourings, must be authorised as safe before they can be sold. To do this, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) conduct a thorough safety or ‘risk’ assessment which is included in our recommendations to ministers in England, Wales, and Scotland, who then decide whether the product can be sold. 

As part of our ongoing work to create a streamlined market authorisations service for regulated products, these changes will help us achieve a more efficient service, without reducing food safety or standards in any way. This will bring benefits to consumers through a wider choice of safe food as new, innovative products reach the market more quickly. 

The new Food and Feed (Regulated Products) (Amendment, Revocation, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 make the authorisation process more efficient, by:  

1. Removing the requirement to renew authorisations for three regulated product regimes (feed additives, smoke flavourings and food or feed containing, consisting of, or produced from, genetically modified organisms) every ten years.  Removing the requirement to reassess products that have many years of safe use, regardless of whether evidence on safety changes, is in line with our process for other regulated product regimes. This means the FSA and FSS can focus resources on detailed assessments of products which potentially pose the most risk. 

The FSA and FSS can monitor new evidence and take necessary action at any point. We can review authorisations at any time and advise ministers on changes.  

Businesses must report to FSA and FSS if they believe their products could harm consumers. For certain products, they must also conduct and report post-market monitoring and environmental monitoring to the FSA/FSS. 

    2. Allowing authorisations to come into effect following ministerial decision and then be published in an official public register or list, available via our website, rather than by legislation (statutory instrument).  

This aligns with other UK regulators' processes and will shorten the administrative period before new, safe products can be sold. Publishing authorisations in online registers will make information more accessible. We will continue to publish all risk assessments and consult on proposed authorisations.

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