UK novel food authorisation: should you wait for the EU?

UK novel food authorisation has run on a predictable, if slow, timeline for years. Say your NPD team has spent the last year building a dossier for a precision-fermented protein source nobody has cleared for the UK market yet. You did the safety data, the allergenicity work, the exposure modelling. You submitted through the regulated products portal and settled in for what has historically been about a two and a half year wait.

Then, buried in board papers from March 2026, the Food Standards Agency says something that changes the maths. Your application might not reach a ministerial decision through that route at all, not on any timeline you can plan around.

What's actually changing, and when

In May 2025, the UK and EU published a "Common Understanding" setting out the terms of a broader reset in relations, including a commitment to work towards a UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, usually shortened to SPS Agreement. It covers far more than novel foods: food and feed safety generally, animal and plant health, food labelling, organics, and marketing standards. Under the agreement, Great Britain would "dynamically align" with EU rules across these areas, meaning GB would adopt EU regulatory decisions as they're made rather than running a separate approval process.

For novel foods specifically, that has one very direct consequence. The FSA's own regulated products application guidance, updated in March 2026 with a dedicated notice on the SPS Agreement, states plainly that subject to any exceptions negotiated, a UK-EU SPS Agreement based on dynamic alignment would mean EU market authorisation would be required to place a regulated product on the Great Britain market, and EU conditions of use would apply alongside it.

Implementation is targeted for mid-2027. Negotiations moved quickly through the second half of 2025 and into 2026: the Council of the EU authorised the European Commission to open formal talks in November 2025, the first negotiating round ran that December, and both sides spent the first half of 2026 working towards concluding the text ahead of a second UK-EU summit, with several trade sources pointing to a summit in July 2026. As of this writing, the exact outcome of that summit isn't confirmed. What's been consistent across every official statement since March 2026 is the mid-2027 target for implementation, regardless of exactly when the text gets signed.

The UK process just got a bit faster, which barely matters now

To be fair to the FSA, it has been trying to fix its own process. Before April 2025, every novel food authorisation needed a statutory instrument laid in Parliament before it could take effect, on top of the safety assessment itself. The FSA itself estimated that step added up to six months onto a process that already took roughly two and a half years on average.

The Food and Feed (Regulated Products) (Amendment, Revocation, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 removed that requirement. Since April 2025, authorisations take effect through ministerial decision and get published straight to the register, no secondary legislation needed. Products already authorised as safe no longer need periodic renewal either.

That's a genuine improvement. It's also being overtaken by a bigger structural change before most applicants get to feel the benefit.

Why the FSA is quietly pointing some applicants at the EU

This is the part that should change how you plan, not just how you feel about it. In its March 2026 board papers, the FSA stated plainly that a substantial number of applications in the FSA/FSS Market Authorisation Service are unlikely to reach the point of ministerial decision before the Agreement is in place, and that it has adopted principles for prioritising which ones do. Food Standards Scotland's own guidance carries the identical line, word for word, which tells you this isn't a one-off comment buried in a board pack. It's now the standing position of both UK food regulators.

A stakeholder question put to the same board meeting captures the practical confusion this creates: given recent FSA communications advising businesses to prepare for EU-led authorisation processes, while also being told to keep engaging with the UK system, what should applicants actually rely on? The FSA's answer, in short, was that the current GB process continues to operate for now, but the direction of travel is clear enough that it's telling people to watch the EU route.

This isn't hypothetical. Real applications are moving through the GB system right now under names like RP1411 (an extension of use for Schizochytrium sp. oil, a source of DHA and EPA) and RP1476 (2'-Fucosyllactose, a human milk oligosaccharide), both the subject of a consultation that closed in February 2026. Companies including the cultivated meat producers Gourmey and Vital Meat have also gone through the FSA's process in recent years. Every one of these is a live example of an application that has to make a real decision about which regulatory clock it's racing against.

The decision most SME teams haven't had to make before

Until now, "apply to the FSA" was the only sensible answer for a GB-only novel food launch. That's no longer automatically true. The questions worth working through:

Is your target market GB-only, or GB and EU? If you need EU market access eventually anyway, filing with EFSA now and waiting for dynamic alignment to bring that approval into GB might get you both markets off a single dossier, once the Agreement is in force.

Do you already have an application in the FSA queue? If so, find out where it sits against the FSA's prioritisation principles. An application that's well advanced may still clear before mid-2027. One that's just been submitted is a genuine toss-up.

Can you afford to wait? EFSA's average is barely different from the FSA's, at 2.56 years against roughly 2 to 2.5. Filing with the EU doesn't necessarily get you to market faster on its own. The advantage only shows up if you needed EU access anyway, or if your GB application genuinely can't compete for the ministerial decisions the FSA is prioritising before 2027.

Is dual-filing worth the cost? For a well-funded ingredient supplier, running both routes in parallel might be the safest hedge against an uncertain summit outcome. For most SME brands, that's not realistic, which makes the first two questions the ones that actually decide this.

What to do with this

Don't treat the UK novel food process as the default anymore without checking where your specific application sits. If you're mid-dossier, ask the FSA directly where you sit against its published prioritisation principles rather than assuming your original timeline holds. If you're starting fresh and EU market access matters to your business at all, model both routes before you commit resource to one dossier.

And build in a review point. This is a fast-moving area with a summit outcome that wasn't confirmed at the time of writing. The mid-2027 implementation target has held steady since March 2026, but the details of what dynamic alignment means specifically for novel foods are still being finalised. We'll revisit this once the SPS Agreement text is public.

Frequently asked questions

What is the UK-EU SPS Agreement?

A Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement between the UK and EU, first committed to in a "Common Understanding" published in May 2025. It covers food and feed safety, animal and plant health, labelling, organics, and marketing standards, and would see Great Britain dynamically align with EU rules in these areas rather than running fully separate UK processes.

What is a novel food?

A novel food is any food that was not used for human consumption to a significant degree in the UK or EU before 15 May 1997. That covers genuinely new foods, traditional foods eaten elsewhere in the world but new to the UK market, and foods made using new production processes.

When does the SPS Agreement take effect?

Implementation is targeted for mid-2027. Negotiations were aiming to conclude ahead of a UK-EU summit in the summer of 2026, though the exact outcome of that summit wasn't confirmed as of this writing.

Will EU novel food approvals apply automatically in the UK after the Agreement?

Yes, subject to any exceptions negotiated. FSA guidance confirms that under dynamic alignment, EU market authorisation would be required to place a regulated product, including novel foods, on the Great Britain market, with EU conditions of use applying alongside it.

Should I still apply for UK novel food authorisation now?

It depends on your timeline and target market. If your application is well advanced in the FSA's Market Authorisation Service, it may still reach a ministerial decision before mid-2027. If you're starting a new application and need EU market access eventually, filing with EFSA may serve both markets once dynamic alignment takes effect.

How long does novel food authorisation currently take?

The FSA's process has historically averaged around two and a half years, reduced by a few months since an April 2025 reform removed the need for a statutory instrument. EFSA's average across the EU is comparable, at 2.56 years for applications assessed between 2018 and 2024.

What happens to my application if it's already in progress when the SPS Agreement takes effect?

The FSA has said a substantial number of applications currently in its Market Authorisation Service are unlikely to reach a ministerial decision before the Agreement is in place, and has adopted internal principles for prioritising which ones do. If you have an application in progress, ask the FSA directly where it sits against those principles rather than assuming your original timeline still holds.

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