Pressure grows over ‘fake farm’ shop labels

FARMERS’ leaders have stepped up pressure on supermarkets over their ‘misleading’ invention of fake farm brands which dupe shoppers into thinking they are buying British when the produce can be foreign.

The president of the National Farmers’ Union, Meurig Raymond, has urged trading standards officers to investigate the practice because he believes consumers are being misled.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last week the NFU is considering legal action over Tesco’s invented brands such as Woodside, Boswell, Nightingale and Rosedene farms. These names evoke the British countryside but produce can come from the Continent or as far afield as Honduras.

The NFU believes its case has been strengthened by a YouGov poll which found six out of ten people believed food sold under the fake farm labels was ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ British, and consumers said they would feel misled if this were not so.

A quarter of the 1,796 adults questioned admitted they did not know if the food brands were fake or real, and 30 per cent were ‘unsure’ where food sold under the British-sounding farm label came from.

Farmers’ leaders believe the branding is in breach of country of origin labelling rules.

Mr Raymond said: ‘Our survey shows mixing imported product with British product under the same fictional farm name can be misleading to customers.’

A Tesco spokesman said: ‘Our research shows customers enjoy our farms range and understand where the products come from, with the country of origin clearly labelled on the pack.’