Retailers are selling meat products with misleading information about where they are sourced, according to the Conservative Party.

In a film, commissioned by the Tories and released today, retailers are “taken to task” over selling meat products with labels that are “at best unclear about the origin of the meat, and at worse misleading”.

It highlights a Tesco children’s chicken meal that says it is ‘Produced in the UK’ on the label, yet the meat came from Thailand.

Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s were also singled out for inaccurate labelling.

The Conservative Party have released the film as part of its Honest Food campaign for country of origin food labelling.

Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary Nick Herbert said: “It's time for a compulsory country of origin labelling scheme so that people have proper information to enable them to choose British food with confidence."

But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retailers do support UK farmers and “extensively promote their produce”.

BRC director of food Andrew Opie said: "Retailers are huge supporters of UK agriculture. The vast majority of fresh food sold in UK stores is sourced in the UK. Retailers run extensive promotions on UK produce, using price-cuts, advertising and labelling. Any customer going into a store for UK produce will have no trouble finding it.

"Retailers fully comply with labelling law. They are also actively involved in the Assured Food Standard. Its red tractor logo is independently audited to guarantee food origin and production standards. There is no attempt to mislead."

Topics