David Jones, MP

Spoke yesterday in the opposition day debate on food labelling, called to highlight the continuing scandal whereby meat reared abroad but processed in the UK can legally be sold as British or Welsh produce.

 By virtue of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, goods are deemed to have been manufactured or produced in the country in which they last underwent a treatment or process resulting in “substantial change”.  Thus, foreign reared meat slaughtered and processed in Wales may legally be marketed as a “product of Wales”.

 This is, in a very real sense, theft.  It is theft of the goodwill that has been built up by generations of farmers in producing a quality product that people want to buy because it tastes better, because they know that it has been produced in clean conditions, with proper attention to animal welfare and has not been stuffed full of growth hormones and antibiotics.

 Consumers, too, are being cheated.  The label says one thing, but the truth is entirely different. The microwaveable chicken curry bought in the supermarket may be described as a product of the United Kingdom, but is in fact  made with chicken produced in intensive poultry sheds in Thailand.  The consumer hasn’t a clue as to the true origins of the meat that he is putting on his plate.

 The Government, rather pathetically, argued that the best protection for consumers was adherence to the guidance issued by the Food Standards Agency.  However, the problem with the guidance is that it is self-evidently not mandatory.  The preamble to the guidance notes makes it clear that:

 ‘The examples in this document are provided for illustration only. It is ultimately the responsibility of individual businesses to ensure their compliance with the law. Compliance with the advice on best practice is not required by law.’ 

The guidance is consequently widely ignored by retailers.  For example, the guidance notes suggest: 

‘that to describe a rabbit pie that is made in the UK from imported rabbit as “Produced in the UK” would not be best practice. We recommend that as a way of ensuring compliance with both the substantial change and the misleading labelling legislation it be described: 

“Made in Britain from imported rabbit”, or

“Made in Britain from French rabbit”, or

“Made in Britain from rabbit sourced from the EU”‘

 However, a typical supermarket response to the guidance is that of Tesco, quoted in the Independent:

 ‘”produced in the UK” will be in small writing on the back of the pack and is intended only to indicate where the food has been produced. It is not used in a way that suggests any of the ingredients are British and is not used to market the food as a ‘British’ product.’

 It is nothing short of a disgrace that supermarkets and processors are at absolute liberty, under the present arrangements, to plaster food products with Union Jacks or Welsh dragons and to say that they are produced in the UK or Wales, when they are not British or Welsh and could not, even on the most charitable interpretation of either adjective, be described as such.

 And just as disgraceful is the Government’s weak-kneed refusal to do anything about it.