Know what you eat
ANEW Defra consultation will examine how better to label pork, chicken and eggs, making clear where it is produced, processed, packaged and so on to allow consumers to make informed choices, particularly where they may wish to support British farmers, who currently produce about 60% of the food we eat. Countryof-origin labelling is a particular issue—for example, at the moment, imported pork cured into bacon in the UK features a Union Flag, which is far more noticeable than small print.
It is hoped that ‘a mandatory five-tier label for domestic and imported products’ will be instituted, to ‘differentiate between those that fall below, meet and exceed baseline UK animal-welfare regulations’.
‘We in the UK have some of the highest farming standards, producing quality food products. That needs to be recognised in the marketplace,’ comments Fidelity Weston, chair of the Consortium of Labelling for the Environment, Animal Welfare and Regenerative Farming (CLEAR). ‘To achieve this, we need a clear definition of the many terms used to describe the method of production, as well as transparency and honest data about how the food was produced on the farm, right through to the end product.’
‘Better information boosts demand for higher standards, as we’ve seen with mandatory egg labelling,’ adds James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose. ‘Extending this to more products benefits shoppers, farmers and animals.’
Also under consideration is the option to introduce a requirement that restaurants and cafés state the country of origin of meat, seafood and dairy products on their menus.
The proposals seem sensible to NFU president David Exwood, particularly when it comes to enabling the public to support British farmers. However, he says, ‘labelling on its own is not the answer to safeguarding our own high standards from imports that are produced under conditions that would be illegal in the UK’. The Government needs to ‘enshrine a set of core environmental and animal welfare standards in law for all agri-food imports’.
The Defra consultation is open until May 7; visit https://consult.defra.gov.uk/transformingfarm-animal-health-and-welfare-team/ consultation-on-fairer-food-labelling to have your say. Labelling for dairy, beef and sheep meat will have its own separate consultation.