Marks & Spencer changes its labels in victory for ‘honest food’ campaign

By Robert Mendick
Source: Telegraph.co.uk  - http://tinyurl.com/ykhzfsp

Marks & Spencer has backed The Sunday Telegraph ‘honest food’ campaign by announcing its meat, fish and dairy items will be clearly labelled with the country of origin.

The retailer said it will become the first major chain in the UK to clearly state the source of all its dairy produce. The move follows an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph into the sourcing of food and how it is labelled which showed how shoppers are often left baffled or misled.

The move by M&S marks a victory in this paper’s campaign for honest labelling. Two weeks ago The Sunday Telegraph revealed how more cheddar cheese was being imported from Latvia than was being made in the Somerset village of Cheddar itself – and that consumers were none the wiser. British dairy farmers have complained how their industry is being undermined – leading to many farmers quitting the milk business – by cheap imports of cheese and other dairy products.

Now M&S has agreed to state on labels the origin of all its dairy produce. The company already includes country of origin labelling for fresh fish and meat.

M&S Director of Food John Dixon said last week: “We’re really pleased to be supporting the Sunday Telegraph campaign – clear and honest labelling is at the heart of the M&S food business and we believe all our customers should be able to see at a glance where the food they buy from our stores has come from.”

M&S will start relabelling its own brand dairy products from January including not only milk, butter and cheese but also ice-cream and creme fraîche. Labels will not only state where the product was made but where the milk comes from.

Under current labelling laws, supermarkets are under no obligation to state where dairy products originate – provided that labels are not misleading. Cheddar cheese, for example although thought of as the quintessential British cheese, can come from the Continent – and often does – without any requirement to tell consumers.

M&S said that where a dairy product is made in the UK and all the main ingredients are sourced from the UK, it will be labelled ‘Product of the UK’. Similarly, where all the main ingredients for a product are sourced, made and packaged in a single country, the food will be labelled as a product of that country. For instance, St Agur cheese will be labelled ‘Product of France’.

Where dairy products are made in the UK but foreign ingredients are also included, such as with a Brandy butter, a declaration of ‘Made in the UK with British milk’ will be given – since brandy is not produced in the UK.

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