PROPOSAL 6

Honesty in All Food Labelling  

The NFU and farming campaign groups such as Save British Farming have been calling for the definition of a set of codes relating to core production standards which can be used on all food labelling in the UK (including imports) and we soundly agree with this position. Fully informed consumer choice not only plays a key part in encouraging people to buy British produce, but it is integral to the support of our policy recommendation for agricultural price protection. People know ‘you get what you pay for’ and that high quality handmade produce should cost more than low-quality mass-produced equivalents but how can higher prices be justified to the consumer if they are kept in the dark as to the key differences between the two or indeed to the benefits that the higher welfare products deliver?

Existing organic status and country of origin labelling regulations should be extended to cover differences in methods of production for example use of GMO feedstuffs, animal and environmental welfare standards and the use of gene editing and GMO technology. Producers and retailers should also be required to label and display county of origin information on all fresh produce grown within the UK so that consumers can shop on a ‘closest to home’ provenance basis.

Farmers know there is a big difference between intensive beef lot production with its reliance on GMO feedstuffs, growth hormones and antibiotic use compared to fully pasture raised free range beef, but food labelling regulations fail to require that these differences are made clear to the consumer.

Clarity is also required for food products made in the UK and branded as British, but which use ingredients from a variety of sources and such items should state exactly how much British produce is being used in them.

Finally, regulations should be strengthened to prevent produce grown abroad being labelled as British simply because it was packed and prepared for retail sale here in the UK.

The ‘Buy British’ brand must firstly be clearly defined before its perception can be improved with the consumer and clear labelling is an essential requirement for this task. We must clearly describe our core production standards so comparisons can easily be made to those of imported produce. Therefore we propose:

i) The codification of different production standards and the implementation of legislation requiring them to be clearly displayed on all food packaging. Codes to include gene edited & GMO feedstuff use, growth hormone use, production method and use of gene edited varieties. For example a coding system for beef could rank the highest welfare and quality as 100% grass fed and finished free range organic beef raised without growth hormones as CLASS A and the lowest as 100% beef lot raised using GMO feedstuffs and programmatic use of growth hormones as CLASS E. Codes to apply to all fresh produce and manufactured foods.

ii) Exact percentage amounts of British grown produce to be stated on products manufactured here using ingredients from multiple countries of origin. For example branding terminology such as ‘Made in Britain using British Pork’ must include the percentage figure of British Pork used.

iii) Food packers and retailers must display county of origin information on all fresh produce packaging and in store retail environments to allow customers to select produce on a ‘closest to home’ local food provenance basis.

iv) Labelling or display of foreign grown produce packed in the UK as ‘British Produce’ to be prohibited by law with offenders subject to fines under trading standards legislation.

v) Funding to be set aside for a Government led national marketing campaign aimed at public education relating to the new set of production standard codes and the new county provenance labelling and retail display requirements. Launch ‘Buy British Produce’ and ‘Buy County Local’ marketing campaigns.

Proposals 7 to 14 are outline proposals in brief.