We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Improvement in dairy and pork labelling needed
THE issue of country of origin labelling has been a bugbear among farmers, particularly those who sell pigs, for at least the past decade.
The main problem is the loophole that permits food to be labelled as ‘produced’ or ‘packaged’ in the UK when the core ingredients were actually produced abroad.
While it is already mandatory to label the country of origin of beef due to BSE concerns, the same does not apply to lamb, pork or chicken products. There is also ambiguity over country of origin labelling of processed products containing meat.
It is the British pig industry, which has long sought to differentiate itself from strong import competition by highlighting its stricter, more costly welfare requirements, that has shouted the loudest.
National Pig Association chairman Stewart Houston, praising Tesco’s ‘brave and final step’, stressed the improvements made by all the major supermarkets in recent years, particularly in fresh pork labelling.
But he said there were still improvements to be made in the clarity of bacon, ham and sausage labelling.
There is also room for improvement in the labelling of dairy products, as Tesco’s admission it does not label its imported ‘Value’ range cheese with country of origin shows. Sainsbury’s and Asda were also asked about their cheese labelling policies but had not responded by the time FG went to press.
Origin of milk
Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers chairman Lyndon Edwards is calling for a change in the law to force retailers to show the origin of milk that goes into cheese, amid concerns over rising imports and misleading labelling, particularly of cheddar. He wants to see the Red Tractor and a Union Jack used more frequently on cheese in supermarkets to denote British products.
In January, Defra Secretary Hilary Benn said he would be holding talks with retailers about adopting a voluntary code to improve labelling, while also holding talks in Europe to close legal loopholes.
But this week, the Conservatives appeared to have stolen a march on him by getting Tesco and Morrisons to pledge, not only to support their Honest Labelling campaign, but to adopt its recommendations on meat as company policy.
Not to be outdone, Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick responded by stressing the potential benefits of a new labelling code for the pig industry he was working on this week as chairman of the Pig Meat Supply Chain Forum.