The Minister for the Environment has lodged the Draft Food (Jersey) Regulations 202- to modernise Jersey’s food laws and strengthen consumer and public health protections. The Regulations will apply to food businesses, whether for profit or not, public or private, that carry out activities at any stage of food production, including selling. There is a provision that some food activities which are occasional, small-scale and very low risk will not be subject to these Regulations, with assessments to be undertaken by the Infrastructure & Environment Department where necessary.
The Regulations propose:
- mandatory allergen labelling
- a licensing scheme for food businesses
- updated food hygiene rules to align with the UK and EU
The Government is proposing to replace the current food registration scheme with a new licensing scheme, and has suggested that it shall have the following features:
- Food businesses will be required to hold an annual licence.
- Businesses would be categorised into low, medium, or high risk, based on food type, handling, and customer base.
- Fees would be charged according to risk level, noting that the Minister intends to bring forward a more detailed fee proposal in October 2026.
- Some organisations may be exempt from fees in certain cases.
- The model aims to recover the cost of inspections and focus regulatory efforts on higher-risk operations.
The Draft Food (Jersey) Regulations 202- can be read in full here.
The Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel would like to hear from all food businesses and organisations that operate food services on the Regulations. This anonymised survey should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.