Pot Noodle and Monster Munch risk being renamed under Keir Starmer's EU reset deal banning meat names

Chicken and mushroom Pot Noodles may be caught by the new rules, which would not permit manufacturers to sidestep restrictions simply by describing items as "flavoured" with meat.

The "dynamic alignment" deal struck by Sir Keir Starmer's Government would hand oversight of food standards back to the European Court of Justice, effectively making Britain a rule-taker on future regulations without any input into their creation.

Mark Francois, who chairs the Brexit-backing European Research Group, warned: "Things are clearly coming to a crunch when we are even going to become a rule-taker from Brussels on crisps and snacks.

"If we can't even hold the line over a packet of Monster Munch or some Bacon Fries, what hope do we have over rejoining the Customs Union?"

The UK Food Standards Agency has indicated that Britain would be bound by these new labelling requirements unless negotiators secure exemptions for specific products.

Should the EU legislation, which was agreed last week, clear its final hurdle, enforcement in the UK could begin as early as next year.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith attacked the proposals, stating: "If people want to be able to say something has a meaty taste, what's it got to do with these know-nothing bureaucrats? It's absurd.

"The Labour Government is slowly trying to slide back into Europe through the back door".

The regulations would mandate that meat-related terms can only appear on packaging where ingredients contain "the edible parts of animals".

Dozens of popular vegetarian snacks currently use meat terminology despite containing no actual animal products.

Britain's savoury snack industry, worth £5.4billion annually, faces significant pressure from the proposed changes.

Ministers are pushing for the new food standards arrangement to take effect by mid-2027, and have urged companies to begin preparations.

Frank Furedi, Executive Director of the MCC Brussels think tank, argued Brexit was about taking back control of British laws, and the "weak" Labour government seems ready to sign up to "whatever rules Brussels invents next".

"Laws affecting Britain should be decided in Westminster by elected MPs and not by Eurocrats in Brussels", he said.

Approximately 500,000 businesses face disruption from the agreement, including firms operating solely within Great Britain that have no direct trade relationship with the EU.

Ministers acknowledged over the weekend that thousands of companies with no European trading activity would still need to prepare for the regulatory changes.

Joel Scott-Halkes of the WePlanet NGO cautioned that the deal could damage Britain's growing food technology industry, and that by agreeing to sign up to the latest "loopy rules" from Brussels' food-labelling police, the British Government could end up kneecapping the biotech and food technology sector.

"New start-ups in lab-grown meat and plant-based alternatives are attracting funding and creating hundreds of jobs", he said.

When asked about potential snack rebranding, the Government declined to deny the possibility, instead responding: "This is pure speculation."