Waitrose executive director James Bailey is supporting the government’s proposals for fairer food labelling to ensure greater transparency around the origin of food and its production.
Today (12 March), environment secretary Steve Barclay unveiled plans to give shoppers more information about how and where their food is produced, while also ensuring British farmers’ products get greater recognition.
Barclay said that while British consumers want to buy British farmers’ produce, “too often products made to lower standards abroad aren’t clearly labelled to tell them apart.”
The consultation, which will run for eight weeks, looks at how to improve the country of origin labelling for certain goods, including how and where their information is displayed and what products should be included.
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Bailey said: “We support the government’s efforts to improve transparency and ensure shoppers aren’t misled, while giving farmers recognition for their commitment to animal welfare.”
“Better information boosts demand for higher standards, as we’ve seen with mandatory egg labelling. Extending this to more products benefits shoppers, farmers, and animals.”
The government has also set out proposals to require ‘method of production’ labelling on pork, chicken and eggs, featuring a mandatory five-tier label for domestic and imported products.
This aims to differentiate between items that fall below, meet and exceed baseline UK animal welfare regulations.
It comes as Morrisons, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Ocado have all launched dedicated online ‘Best of British sections in a bid to support farmers and encourage shoppers to Buy British.
