There may be extra work for Northumberland's food hygiene team after Brexit with staff having to accredit products before being exported, a meeting heard.
It came as the Food & Feed Safety and Standards Service Plan for 2019-20, which details how the food law enforcement service will be delivered in Northumberland and is a requirement of the Food Standards Agency, was approved by the council's cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday.
Phil Soderquest, the authority's head of public protection, said: "There's a potential impact of Brexit on the service we deliver.
"This plan is a programme of what we have to do, but there are a number of producers which operate through EU agreements and it may fall to the local authority to provide accreditation to products before export."
He added that some contingency planning is taking place, but aside from this possible role, "the aim is to provide advice and support to businesses so that they can continue with the minimum of disruption".
Away from Brexit, there was some positive news in that the percentage of businesses in Northumberland with a food hygiene rating of satisfactory to very good (three to five stars) is 97.8%, against a national average of 95% and a regional rate of 96.5%.
On the flip side, there were 1,224 written warnings, eight voluntary closure agreements and 47 improvement notices issued in the county in 2018-19 as a result of programmed food hygiene inspections or service requests and complaints investigated by the team.
The report to councillors also explained that a benchmarking process was carried out involving the seven North East councils, which showed that the number of food premises per officer was highest in Northumberland.
"Even so, the service achieved favourably comparable results for inspection rates of high, medium and low-risk premises," it said.
The review of performance in 2018-19 found that all service inspection targets were either met or exceeded, with 100% of high-risk premises completed and the targets for medium and low-risk premises all met fully or exceeded.
The county has a total of 5,441 food and feed premises.
