Foreign meat sold under Welsh logo prompts warning
A claim that meat wholesalers and butchers are selling foreign beef under a Welsh logo has prompted a government warning to local authorities in Wales.
The claim was made at a Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) – Meat Promotion Wales – conference on 8 November by Stephen Williams, of Conwy Valley Meats. He suggested to delegates that not all beef sold under HCC’s Welsh logo was produced in Wales.
Mr Williams said: “As a wholesaler I do a lot of business with high street butchers in north Wales and I know what is being brought into the area and what is being wholesaled. I know for a fact that a lot of so-called Welsh meat comes from across the border, not just from other parts of the UK but from abroad too.
“It is not only having an effect on my business but on farmers in the area because it is not creating the price increase that a premium product should.”
Wholesalers and butchers who sell Welsh beef and lamb are audited and licensed by HCC and there is a cost associated with that process.
“As a wholesaler I do a lot of business with high street butchers in north Wales and I know what is being brought into the area and what is being wholesaled. I know for a fact that a lot of so-called Welsh meat comes from across the border, not just from other parts of the UK but from abroad too.”
Stephen Williams
Mr Williams, whose wholesale business is based in Llanrwst, Gwynedd, said he reported his concerns to trading standards officials but was told there were insufficient resources to pursue it.
“Trading standards is the policing body, it has the power to deal with this but not the manpower and the resources I am told,” Mr Williams said at the HCC conference in Llandudno.
“Wholesalers and butchers know trading standards is very busy and is not going to investigate. It needs someone to get caught and this practice of mislabelling will stop.”
Conwy County Borough Council, the local authority for Llanrwst, insisted that it would always investigate a complaint of mislabelling. It said it had recently cautioned two premises for describing food as Welsh when it was not. “This year, officers have also taken part in joint operations with the Food Standards Agency’s food fraud investigation unit. Any concerns about the misdescription of food should be made to trading standards,” said a spokesman.
Wales’ deputy farm minister Alun Davies said local authorities were given sufficient funding for their trading standards obligations. He urged them to use those resources for the purpose they are intended.
“It is absolutely fundamental to consumer confidence that what people buy is the product they believe they are buying. I have been in business and I know that the worst thing you can do to a consumer is to let them down. The consumer must receive the quality of the promise,” he said.
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