Made in Brussels?

Posted by Andrew Wadge on November 21st 2007 in Out and about

I’m in Brussels today, which is an appropriate place for me to blog about a story running in today’s papers that claims the EU wants to scrap food labels saying 'Made in Britain'.  The basis of these articles seems to be a European Commission consultative document produced in 2004, which has since been scrapped.

The media’s reporting of science has been a topic for discussion on this blog, following the World Cancer Research Fund report earlier this month, and today’s coverage highlights the importance of getting accurate information into the public domain.

A colleague back in the UK picked up an interesting page on the European Commission’s website that deals rather neatly with this and other spurious stories in a 'rogue's gallery' of reports that have turned out to be less than accurate.

Country of origin labelling is an area that is fraught with problems and the FSA is trying to tackle these.  We have recently started a nationwide consultation on the Agency’s advice for country of origin labelling.  It is not compulsory on many foods, but if a manufacturer makes a claim on the origin of his food, it must be accurate and not misleading. This is important, as one of the key aims of the FSA is to make sure consumers are given accurate information about the food they eat.

There have been discussions about whether laws need to be changed.  Current Commission thinking appears to be that rules should be tightened so information becomes more transparent so that, for example, declarations such as 'Produce of UK' have a tighter definition.

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Our guidance

Posted by Andrew Wadge on 03/12/2007 - 12:21

You raise an important point, Rebecca, and one that can potentially be confusing for consumers. The country of origin of a product is, legally, the country in which it last underwent a treatment or process resulting in a 'substantial change'. But we don’t consider that simply packing imported meat or processing it by cutting or slicing to be such a change – so if such a food carried a Union Jack it could be considered misleading.

Processing imported meat into products such as pies or sausages could be viewed as a 'substantial change', and this does present problems. So the Agency has produced guidance on this. This advises that if a food has been produced from imported primary ingredients, such as pork that is then made into sausages in the UK, it may be necessary to provide on the label information on the origin of the meat to avoid being misleading. If such pork sausages displayed a Union Jack, then it would be important to declare the origin of the pork to dispel a misleading impression.

The European Union is currently reviewing labelling legislation and is considering tightening the rules on voluntary labelling, such as how 'Produce of' is defined. My colleagues are working to ensure that the outcome of this review will help avoid labelling that is misleading for consumers.

Country of Origin

Posted by David (not verified) on 28/11/2007 - 11:43

Sorry Kate but Rebecca is right. The country of origin in labelling regulations is defined as the last place of siginificant transformation. It would therefore be perfectly legal for Dutch chicken cooked in the UK to be described as produced in the UK, as the cooking would be a significant transformation, and carry a UK symbol. It would only be misleading if an implication was made that the chicken itself was of UK origin

Union Jack

Posted by Kate Holme (not verified) on 28/11/2007 - 08:02

Its only legal if it is not misleading - i.e. clearly states produced in the UK from Danish pork or something similar. You could not have a Union Jack flag on say bacon made with Danish pork with no other explanation - that would be misleading. So up to the consumer to read the small print.

Food Labelling

Posted by Rebecca (not verified) on 26/11/2007 - 15:07

What do you feel about the fact that it is legal for any imported meat that undergoes processing or packaging in this country to display the Union Jack on its packaging or labelling?