Major UK Supermarkets Back Tory Pledge For Honest Labelling

Post by Sharat | October 9, 2009 | Shopping News | Comment

Major UK supermarket chains, including Tesco and Morrsions have said that they will support the Conservative Party campaign pledge which is geared towards enabling consumers to having information on where the meat they buy is sourced from.

The Conservative Party’s Honest Food campaign was launched back in February and wants to impose new labelling laws. The law would require manufacturers to label all fresh and processed meats, as well as dairy products with a genuine country of origin.

So far Tesco and Morrisons, the UK’s largest and fourth largest supermarket chains respectively have signed up for the campaign, and said they will support the measure. The retailers pledged to improve the labelling on products they sell which contain at least 10 per cent meat, which would provide consumers greater clarity about countries of production and processing.

The retailers will also phase out the term “Produced in the UK”, replacing it instead, with the term “Made in the UK with meat from X” for products which are processed in the UK but contain meat produced outside the country.

They will also replace the term “Produced in the UK” with the term “Made in the UK with meat from X” on products that are manufactured in the UK but contain non-British meat .

Director of policy at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Martin Haworth, said :

We hope the new EU legislation on food labelling is used to make the country of origin labeling clearer so that consumers can make more informed choices when they shop. However, the new legislation will take years to come into effect so if the UK can move towards voluntarily labelling for country of origin this will allay our – and consumers’ – concerns.

Mr. Haworth added

We look forward to seeing more evidence of retailer support for country-of-origin labelling on supermarket shelves.

Other major UK retailers have expressed support for the campaign according to the Conservative Party, with Asda UK saying it was currently reviewing its labeling policy so that its customers had accurate information about where its products are processed and produced.

Please Note - All Prices Quoted Are Correct at Time of Posting

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