Tractor logo complaint rejected

11 December 2000



Tractor logo complaint rejected

By Isabel Davies

THE Advertising Standards Authority has rejected claims by a consumer watchdog that the British Farm Standards little red tractor logo is misleading.

The Food Commission had submitted three complaints to the ASA concerning a brochure entitled The British Farm Standard. Your Natural Choice.

The British Farm Standard tractor logo was launched this year by the National Farmers Union in a bid to increase sales of British food.

But the commission challenged the brochures claim that produce carrying the logo could be described as “the highest standard of food”.

Claims that food bearing the logo had been produced to exacting food safety, environmental and animal-welfare standards were doubtful, it said.

And it disputed the brochures assertion that food showing the logo had been produced with the interests of livestock and the environment in mind.

But the ASA concluded that none of the complaints should be upheld.

Readers of the brochure would interpret the claim “the highest standard of food” in the context of farm assurance schemes, the authority ruled.

Consumers would not interpret the wording as a claim that British Farm Standard food was produced under the highest food and animal welfare standards.

All the criteria for food meeting the standard were available to consumers, said the authority. People would not be misled by the logo, it added.

A spokesman for the National Farmers Union said the ruling was fantastic news for farmers who had invested time and money in the new standard.