Initial responses to the European Commission’s public consultation on how to make the EU food supply chain fairer suggest that, bar retailers, the majority of significant stakeholders (including Member States, farmer groups, agricultural organisations and NGOs) are in favour of action at EU level to increase fairness and balance in the food supply chain. The EU-wide consultation has so far received record numbers of contributions. It was prompted by concerns that differences in bargaining power…

On 11 September 2017, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published draft regulations prohibiting the manufacture and supply of rinse-off personal care products containing microbeads. The draft Regulations (available here) are to be laid before the UK Parliament for approval. Under the draft legislation: companies will be prohibited from manufacturing such products from 1 January 2018, and from supplying such products from 30 June 2018; and failure to comply will…