Product liability and food law is a heavily regulated area, no matter how closely food laws are monitored, new developments which impact upon the operations of manufacturers, retailers and caterers can be easy to miss.
There is an understandable tendency to look at the law from a narrow perspective but they may miss the wider legal context. We make it our business to see the wider picture. We work with manufacturers and retailers in the health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, and hospitality and leisure industries to help them understand their obligations, identify, manage, mitigate and reasonably adopt risk as well as protect their reputations in a competitive marketplace.
Our team of six partners and 11 solicitors is one of the largest regulatory departments in the UK. Three of our partners are specialists in food law:
- Hilary Ross
- Jagdeep Tiwana
- Jon Cooper
and we offer deep and broad expertise across the product liability spectrum.
We have extensive experience in relation to compliance regimes for a broad range of food products including nutraceuticals, PARNUTs (foods prepared for particular nutritional purposes), food supplements, herbals as well as genetically modified and novel foods. Combining our legal knowledge with a practical and commercial approach we help UK and international clients successfully launch and market their products in the EU. On the contentious side we represent clients at interviews with regulators, liaise on their behalf with EU institutions and represent them in court.
Challenging legislation
The team has a distinguished history of challenging proposed and implemented legislation in the UK and EU. Acting for trade associations and individual companies, the team provides coherent opinions and responds quickly to consultations that challenge how laws are drafted or applied. A national Scores on the Doors scheme was challenged and pressure exerted to bring codes of practices into line with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. If persuasion is not heeded, the team has an impressive track record bringing judicial review proceedings against UK regulators.
Product recalls and crisis management
Businesses can within hours be subjected abruptly to aggressive enforcement and media scrutiny. How this scrutiny is dealt with often makes or breaks a company's reputation. The team helps devise crisis management strategies, liaises with regulatory authorities and advises upon when and how product withdrawals and recalls should be completed.
Due diligence reviews for acquisition
Buying or investing in a new company is a huge investment. The team assists. By scrutinising existing products and procedures for compliance and calculating the costs involved in achieving compliance. The exercise ensures investors pay the true worth of the target company.