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BRITISH DEMAND COUNTRY OF ORGIN LABELING

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
News Serving up the best: The Malmaison hotel in Leeds is leading the way in promoting good British produce. Head chef John Malia, who is seen cooking Yorkshire entrecote steak, is looking for suppliers within a 30-mile radius. The hotel is supporting the Country Land and Business Association’s campaign to encourage diners to ask where the food on the menu is from. Picture:Gerard Binks. Branded as British meat – but 1.6m tonnes comes from abroadMade in Britain
Labelling loophole means foreign imports can be marked as home grown
SHOPPERS are buying a massive 1.6m tonnes of foreign meat a year as imports soar to a new high – and it can be passed off as British.
Today the Yorkshire Post launches a campaign for clearer food labelling so that consumers know the food they are buying is truly British.
Foreign meat does not have to be produced to the same high standards that this country's farmers adhere to.
Yet a staggering 1.1m tonnes of foreign pork, beef and lamb was imported to the UK in 2006 – up from 675,000 tonnes in 1995. In addition, 560,000 tonnes of poultry was imported last year.
But as UK farmers struggle, a loophole in the law allows foreign meat to be branded British. Food can be labelled as produced in whichever country it was processed last. Processing can simply be smoking bacon or curing ham.
Confusing food labels mean shoppers who are keen to buy British produce are unwittingly buying foreign meat.
The revelation comes amid growing fears over food entering the country following yesterday's news that bird flu discovered at the Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk was probably brought to the country in a delivery of turkey meat from Hungary.
A spokesman for the British Poultry Council said: "There has definitely been an upward trend over the last 10 or 15 years when it comes to importing meat."
The Yorkshire Post's Clearly British campaign is calling for clear, unambiguous labelling of where the meat is from on the front of all packs and we will pile pressure on the Government to take action.
We also want better labelling on menus so diners know where the food is from and we are backing the Country Land and Business Association's Just Ask campaign, which wants people to find out where the food on their plate comes from.
EU regulations mean the Government cannot take action alone, but we are calling on Ministers to put pressure on the EU to force all countries to declare clearly where their meat is from. The EU is currently reviewing its regulations.
While there are attempts by the farming industry to label British produce with quality marks such as Assured Food Standards' Red Tractor logo, the Yorkshire Post argues that all meat should say clearly where it is from.
The issue has been raised by the Tories and leader David Cameron last month called for clearer labelling at the Oxford Farming Conference so that consumers can buy genuine British food.
A comprehensive study carried out last year showed that more than half of manufacturers' branded products failed to give clear – or any – information on where the meat came from. The Food Standards Agency also found 81 per cent of processed meat products failed to say where it was from.
Of the 858,000 tonnes of pork imported into the UK during 2005, 70 per cent would have been illegal to produce in the UK.
In a labelling survey by the British Pig Executive, Asda came bottom in a table ranking supermarkets for their displays of origin labelling on pork products, with only 47 per cent of its packets containing specific country of origin statements.
An Asda spokeswoman said: "At Asda we source British wherever we can and ensure all our food meets tough labelling laws."
British farmers say they are unable to compete on a level playing field with their European counterparts for cheap meat.
Richard Lowe, consumer affairs director at the Meat and Livestock Commission, said: "There are few if any obvious examples of anyone breaking the law, but shoppers could be forgiven for picking up the wrong pack without realising it."
The National Farmers' Union has worked hard over the last few years to remove deliberately misleading brands from the shelves.
Robert Newbury, senior food chain and farm policy advisor, said: "A lot of consumers would like to buy British but they are confused by the labels."
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Trade secrets

70 per cent of pork imported into UK would be illegal to produce here on welfare grounds.
81 per cent of processed meat products failed to indicate where the meat came from.
Less than half the labels of one retailer on own-brand products gave where the pork, bacon, ham or sausage was from.
One in every four own- label products sold have no clear country of origin information.
17 February 2007
 
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