Local food labels are often incorrect, local government watchdog's survey finds
Consumers are being misled by "local" foods, with almost a fifth of products bearing the label making the claim falsely, a study has revealed.
Items that were found to be misleading include "Welsh lamb" from New Zealand, "Somerset butter" from Scotland, "Devon ham" from Denmark and "West Country fish fillets", where the fish had been caught in the West Country but filleted in China.
Consumers are also being tricked by "local" ice-cream, while "fresh local cream" was actually a cream substitute with vegetable fat and "Yorkshire chillies" in chilli sausage were really supermarket-purchased, the local government regulation (LGR) research found.
The LGR, which oversees council regulation, tested 558 "local" products on sale in 300 shops, restaurants, markets and production centres in England and Wales. It found 18% of local claims were "undoubtedly false", with a further 14% unverifiable and therefore assumed to be false. Restaurants had the highest rate of false claims (19%), while manufacturers were found to have the lowest (11%).
The results were "extremely worrying", said the LGR's chairman Cllr Paul Bettison. "Councils are working with businesses to make sure consumers have the information they need and that they are not being ripped off.
"Many people want to support local businesses or choose food that has not travelled from the other side of the world, so it is vital that they have accurate information to help them make their choices."
There is no legal definition of "local" in food labelling. But the food law code of practice states that it should mean "sales within the supplying establishment's own county plus the greater of either the neighbouring county or counties or 30 miles/50 kilometres from the boundary of the supplying establishment's county".
Consumers spend just five seconds reading each product label in the supermarket, it has been claimed.
In December 2009, Marks & Spencer announced that its meat, fish and dairy items would all be clearly labelled with their country of origin.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/26/local-food-labelling-misleading-consumers
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