Browse Data and Analysis

The European Union (EU) follows a complex, rolling system of review for active ingredients and Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) in food. For agricultural inputs, U.S. farmers must know early in the process of review to prevent or mitigate the loss of, and/or access to, chemical inputs.

On November 30, 2022, the European Commission proposed a revision of the 1994 Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste. Some of the proposed requirements may impact agri-food sectors and U.S. exports of processed food and beverages to the European Union.

The European Commission has published a draft of Article 118 of the EU Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation (EU) 2019/6, which extends the EU ban on the use of certain antimicrobials in animals and products of animal origin to imports into the Union.

This guide provides an overview of health certificates needed for exporting plants, animals, foods, and other animal origin products to the European Union. U.S. regulatory agencies have been informed of the wide range of certificates changes that have occurred in the past months and have updated their export manuals to reflect those changes.

This report provides an overview of EU food and feed legislation currently in force for the EU. USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) staff reviewed and updated all sections of this annual report.

The European Union (EU) follows a complex, rolling system of review for active ingredients and Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) in food. For agricultural inputs, U.S. farmers must know early in the process of review to prevent or mitigate the loss of, and/or access to, chemical inputs.

One of the goals of the EU’s Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy is to enhance the EU’s animal welfare legislation. The enforcement of existing legislation on animal welfare during transport has proven difficult in past years.

U.S. beef exports into the EU’s High Quality Beef (HQB) quota seem to finally have emerged from the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in the last quarter of the 2021/2022 quota year. In the quota year 2022-2023, U.S. beef exporters can at last start benefitting from the 2019 agreement with the EU about reserving a U.S. specific part of the HQB quota, which was negotiated between the United States and the European Union in 2009.

On June 29, 2022, the European Commission (EC) approved one genetically engineered (GE) crop (maize) for food and animal feed. The authorization was published in the European Union’s Official Journal on July 1, 2022 and remains valid for 10 years.

The European Union (EU) follows a complex, rolling system of review for active ingredients and Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) in food. For agricultural inputs, U.S. farmers must know early in the process of review to prevent or mitigate the loss of, and/or access to, chemical inputs.

On July 1, 2022, a new quota year starts for the EU High Quality Beef Quota. U.S. exporters can use this quota as well as the Hilton quota for exporting high quality bovine meat to the European Union. This report provides an update on the programs and the certification requirements for both tariff rate quotas.

The long-awaited EU proposed list of antimicrobial products reserved for human medicine has been published for comment through May 17, 2022. This Commission Implementing Regulation is part of the implementation legislation for the Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation (EU) 2019/6, which was implemented on January 28, 2022.