UK Food Firms Urged to Make Sources Clearer

Food companies and supermarkets must be more honest about where their food comes from, the environment secretary, Hilary Benn, said today.
Benn said firms should state clearly on labels the country of origin for their prime ingredients — instead of where products were last significantly processed — so consumers can make a more informed choice about what they buy and eat.

The scare over dioxins in Irish pork last month revealed problems in identifying which products were affected and demonstrated why better labeling was needed, he told the Oxford farming conference.

Talks have begun at European Union level about changing labeling rules so consumers know where animals used even in processed foods are born, reared and slaughtered, but these could take two years to implement.

Benn appealed to the UK food industry to take the initiative, saying "the EU moves a lot slower than consumer demand does. Processors and retailers could get ahead here by voluntarily introducing country of origin labeling. I intend to meet them to discuss how this can happen."

He said people were thinking more about the quality, nutritional value and environmental impact of the food they ate. "When you buy a car you know its service history. When you buy a house you get a detailed survey. So why do we accept knowing so much less about what we are putting in our bodies? Well, I say, we shouldn't."

Present EU rules can obscure where food really came from. "A pork pie made in Britain from Danish pork can legitimately be labeled as a British pork pie," Benn said. "That's a nonsense and it needs to change."

The Food and Drink Federation, the industry trade body, gave a cool response to Benn's calls, saying there were already regulations to protect consumers from being misled. Helen Munday, its director of food safety and science, said it supported food companies who wanted voluntarily to put country of origin labeling on products but suggested there was a big difference between primary foods, where the country of origin was a bigger issue for consumers, and generic products such as meat pies, pizzas and lasagnas, which used a number of ingredients from a range of suppliers.

Source: The Guardian