Made in Britain

Why the Governments current consultation on food labelling is so important

You’ve got till next Monday to tell the Government what you think about current and future food labelling. An extra post from me this week because I think it’s important and the survey takes a little time and thought.

Environment secretary Steve Barclay has launched food labelling proposals to ensure consumers have a clearer understanding of where their food is produced and that British farmers receive the recognition they deserve. With the aim of providing greater transparency about a product's origin and production, the consultation will look at how and where this information is displayed, as well as a five-tier 'method of production' labelling for pork, chicken and eggs, to differentiate between products that fall below, meet or exceed baseline UK animal welfare regulations. 

They’re considering more products to follow in the future. Maybe. It’s a good start and well over due.

Are you confused about the difference between outdoor bred and outdoor reared?

How free range really is free range?

Apart from eggs, there is no mandatory requirement to provide information on how animals have been reared.

Farm assurance schemes, supermarket-specific commitments or standards and non-standardised marketing terms can be confusing. Assurance schemes in place in the UK, such as Red Tractor, and RSPCA Assured, are well-known and play a significant role in domestic livestock production. However, they place variable emphasis on animal welfare and do not cover imported products. Red Tractor for example is the lowest common denominator for welfare standards in the UK.

The Governement say that their proposed method of production labelling reforms aim to: 

• make it easy for consumers to choose food products that align with their values by ensuring that UK baseline and higher welfare products are accessible, available and affordable 

• support farmers meeting or exceeding baseline UK welfare regulations by ensuring they are rewarded by the market 

• improve animal welfare by unlocking untapped market demand for higher welfare products 

Looking back on past articles, I found a piece I wrote in 2003 lambasting confusing and non existent food labelling. I quoted Sir Donald Curry, Chair for the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Food and Farming who had said that pubic policy should-“…reconnect consumers with what they eat and how it is produced."

I want customers in restaurants to know where their ingredients come from. In 2007 The now defunct Meat and Livestock Commission asked restaurants to name the origins of their meat but there was a backlash.

If you buy a packet of meat at a supermarket with a Union Jack on it, you might assume that it’s British meat, but it could come from another country and be processed or packaged in the UK.

If it’s a processed product, some of the ingredients could be from another country with different welfare standards; if pig meat is imported into the UK and cured here in order to produce bacon, then the bacon is a British product and can legitimately be labelled as British. 

Often, meat products from out of the UK don’t have any welfare information or place of origin on the pack. If you’re eating food in a hospital, school or cafe you’re even less likely to know what you’re eating.

As Which? helpfully note in their article on food labelling;

‘Chicken standards vary worldwide; about a third of the chicken we eat in the UK is imported. Chickens from Canada, the USA and Mexico are often kept in higher densities, meaning they have less space than those in the UK, according to the RSPCA.’

If you buy a scotch egg do you want to have welfare information for the sausage meat and the egg? The Goverment is proposing only supplying information for whichever ingredient has the lowest welfare standard.

They want to know how their 5 tier system should look; stars? Numbers? Colours? Are images helpful? They’ve included a graphic of happy chickens by trees; I’d like to see what graphic they’d use for the lowest welfare standards. And their highest standard is free range, there’s nothing about organic or biodynamic products.

In the Governments’ draft production standards, the lowest tier for imported pork, eggs and chicken has no specifications at all. For example the lowest tier for laying hens has no specifications for stocking density (how many hens per square metre). The next tier up allows ‘750 cm² of cage area per hen, 600 cm² of which must be usable’ Sadly, in the UK, about 35% of chickens that lay eggs are still kept in cages. Let’s have clearer labelling that shows hens in cages. Not just on egg boxes. On food labels if free range egg is used in a mayonnaise for example, it’s stated as such but shouldn’t labels have to say ‘egg from caged hens’ if that’s the case? And how about a ban on imported products that do not meet baseline UK welfare regulations.

Re. their production standards, I’d want to know if animals have been subject to growth hormones. What method of slaughter has been used?

As Compassion in World Farming says, we need honest labelling. It’s a chance to have your say; don’t miss the opportunity. Here’s the consultation link again.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash