Notice of withdrawal of recognition for natural mineral water

As a consequence, all natural mineral waters which obtained their recognition in or by an

EU member state will no longer be authorised for import into England as natural mineral

waters, unless they are recognised as such by a responsible authority of the United Kingdom

with the exception of Northern Ireland.

– The Rt Hon George Eustice MP

Automatic recognition of established natural mineral water from the EEA (EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) will expire on 7 January 2022. As such, any natural mineral waters which obtained recognition via the EU must apply for recognition to sell natural mineral water in Great Britain before the above date.

On 2 July 2021, as anticipated by Aqua Amore in our February blog post, The Rt Hon George Eustice MP (Secretary of State for Environment) wrote to Sandra Gallina (here), Dóra S Gunnarsdóttir (here) and Ingunn Midttun Godal (here) to inform them of the intention to withdraw recognition for natural mineral waters and requirement for re-recognition, following BREXIT.

As proud stockists of many EEA recognised mineral waters for over a decade, Aqua Amore are concerned by the legislation change which will inevitably lead to the potential removal of many mineral waters which are an essential source of naturally occurring minerals such as magnesium, sulphates, bicarbonates and chloride to our customers, minerals which are only naturally available in high mineral waters sourced from Europe. The complex administration required for re-recognition would, unfortunately, act as a deterrant to smaller niche producers who rely on indirect import of their waters to the GB marketplace and therefore lead to the potential unavailability of products from the start of 2022. Other mineral water producers have stated their intention to remove themselves from the GB market. However, on a more positive note, we have successfully petitioned over fifteen producers to submit their documents prior to the deadline (at time of writing) and continue to work with many others to provide the correct guidance documents and outline administrative requirements, so we remain hopeful that Aqua Amore customers will continue to have high-TDS and naturally carbonated options.

The team at Aqua Amore remain dedicated to bringing the widest variety of mineral waters to the GB market for our customers and to offering a platform and shop window for many brands. To this end, we continue to work alongside DEFRA and in communicating with both the UK Government and our producer partners to encourage recognition (and potential reform within the framework for recognition) and find solutions for the continued availability of high TDS mineral waters to the GB market.