The Foodservice Equipment Association (FEA) and the European Federation of Catering Equipment Manufacturers (EFCEM) have joined other business organisations in the UK and the EU to call for a mutual recognition agreement on product conformity assessments in order to reduce barriers to trade.
Conformity assessment is the process of verifying that a product, service, process, or system meets specified requirements, such as standards or regulations.
Since the UK left the European Union there hasn’t been a unified approach to conformity assessment with our European neighbours. This means that commercial kitchen equipment suppliers on both sides are increasingly facing costs to have equipment tested and recognised against UK criteria, and then facing those costs again to have their equipment tested against the European criteria, which is often very similar.
Business organisations from the UK and EU met in February 2025 to discuss practical measures that could be enacted to reduce the technical barriers to UK-EU trade. ‘
The importance of ensuring UK-EU trade operates as smoothly as possible has been highlighted recently with the introduction by Donald Trump of trade tariffs on goods being exported to the United States, which has raised the spectre of costs rising to unsustainable amounts.
This deal could be either delivered alongside other measures focussed on industry, or as a standalone mini deal outside of the EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement.
This effort comes ahead of the EU-UK leader summit scheduled for May 19th, and this statement is part of FEA’s ongoing work with its European peer organisations to ensure that the voices of its members are heard during decisions about legislation that affects them.
“Reducing unnecessary barriers to trade is a huge priority for many FEA members and the foodservice equipment industry as a whole,” says John Cunningham, chief executive of FEA. “We are proud to join this effort to call on the UK and EU to pursue the goal of reaching an agreement on mutual recognition of conformity. It is a fully achievable and practical measure that will help to deepen the trading relationship between the UK and EU member states.”