LABEL TELLS CONFUSING TALE
LABEL TELLS CONFUSING TALE
Our Trolley Watchers have
been out again, monitoring
prices and availability in
supermarkets. A scarcity of
British lamb was remarked
upon by some, while the
labelling debate again occupied
the minds of others
LABELLING practices have again been in the firing line this month, with consumers left uncertain as to products country of origin.
"It is all very confusing," says Carole Muddiman of Brackley, Northants. She bought a pack of Co-op back bacon, bearing the British Meat Quality Standard mark on the front, only to read in the small print on the underside that it was "cured in EU, using EU pork packed in UK".
This raised questions, therefore, as to whether the meat was produced in Britain – or if it was reared elsewhere and merely packed here? "Does packed in UK turn this into British meat?" she asks.
A spokesman for the Co-op insisted that any product bearing the British Meat Quality Standard will be British meat, regardless of the EU reference on the back of the pack.