Unpalatable U-turn

NOT long after becoming Conservative leader, David Cameron said it was ‘completely wrong’ that food from overseas could be passed off as ‘British’ if it was imported from abroad but processed in the UK. Changing the rules on labelling became even more urgent after the horse meat scandal, when worried families were left with no means of knowing what they had eaten or where it had come from.

But, as we reveal today, ministers have now shamefully abandoned their commitment to clear labelling of a product’s country of origin in the face of a ferocious lobbying campaign by the self-interested meat industry. As with the Government’s repeated capitulation to the big j unk f ood corporations, it’s the lobbyists who win the day – with the needs of the consumer coming a very poor second.