How the regulators are missing a chance to make the best of Brexit
In case you missed it: The Financial Times has just published an important piece exploring why post-Brexit Britain is still struggling to deliver on its promise of a more agile regulatory environment for emerging industries like lab-grown meat, CBD, and other novel foods.
Summary:
The UK’s post-Brexit ambition to become a global hub for innovative sectors like alternative proteins and CBD is being undermined by slow, under-resourced regulatory processes, particularly within the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Despite government promises to move faster than the EU, the FSA has only completed 63 out of 450 novel food applications since 2021, with thousands more pending or incomplete. Companies like Hoxton Farms are now considering relocating to the US, where FDA approval is expected within a year and regulators engage with businesses before formal submission—something the UK still does not offer.
Nick Morland, CEO of Tenacious Labs and secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for CBD, says that although politicians sign off on reforms, Whitehall is too slow to act. “People signing off are saying ‘yes please’, but the people who are supposed to make it happen are just not getting it done,” he tells the FT. Morland adds that the UK still has a small window to establish itself as Europe’s CBD capital if it moves quickly.
The article concludes that while Brexit creates new freedoms, the real barriers to progress lie in the UK’s risk-averse culture, limited regulatory funding, and fragmented decision-making.
