Where Does Your 'British' Food Come From?

For example, Sainsbury's sell a Lancashire Hotpot ready meal. They label it as being part of their "British Classics" range - yet the lamb used to make it comes from New Zealand.

Marks & Spencer sell their own take on a British classic ready meal - Liver and Bacon. It states that the pork used in the dish is from the UK and the packaging even boasts a Union Flag - but the liver comes from the other side of the world - from New Zealand lamb.

There's also Walls 'Cumberland Sausages' whose origin you might think is fairly specific but in fact the small print says that the meat could come from all over the EU.

The manufacturers and supermarkets are doing nothing wrong - they are all legal, they all comply with the rules and they are all legitimate.

So how easy is it to pass off foreign meals as British despite the new code? Watchdog's Chris Hollins wanted to find out whether he could create his own brand of ready meals containing no British ingredients whatsoever and still legally brand them as 'British'.

Chris sourced chicken from Poland, potatoes from Egypt, peas from Kenya, carrots from Belgium and asparagus from Peru. Amazingly, by putting the foreign chicken and vegetables into a single dish and cooking it Chris has made what's known as the "last substantive change". The EU rules say that because he did this in London he can say that it was produced there and that it is British in origin.

Chris then visited a marketing expert for advice on how to package the dish to give the impression it was as British as possible. They used a string of buzz-words to help seduce the patriotic consumer: "traditional", "country of origin UK", "a British classic", "produced in the UK", "a taste of home" and "ye olde farm favourites". They also used colours found in the Union Flag - though not the flag itself as that is not allowed under the current guidelines unless the true origin of the primary ingredient is specified. The flag can be used if a separate declaration makes it clear that the primary meat is not from the UK.

Chris then tested the meal out on the great British public, many of whom were shocked that a dish labelled as such could contain no UK ingredients whatsoever.

Company Responses:

Marks & Spencer:
"Unfortunately we have made a genuine mistake on the packaging of this product - it does not meet our packaging policy, we check all of our packaging regularly but unfortunately this one has been missed. We will remove the flag immediately - we thank Watchdog for pointing this out and apologise to our customers for any confusion we may have caused them.

"We know how important it is for our customers to know where their food has come from, and clear and honest labelling is at the heart of our business. Our policy for products containing more than one meat is to only use the Union Jack Flag when all the meat is British.

"... We are proud to have the clearest labelling possible and we go well beyond the legal requirements. Our policy for products containing more than one meat is to only use the Union Jack Flag when all the meat is British.

"Since 2002 all our meat and fish (and also M&S products that contain meat or fish - such as chicken or tuna in a sandwich) have been clearly labelled with the country where it is from."

Sainsbury's
"We pride ourselves on our industry leading transparent labelling policy. All the meat used in our fresh ready meals is British, with the exception of lamb when it is not in season and therefore not available in sufficient quantity at the quality we require. We use British lamb in these products when it is in season, but when it is not we use lamb from New Zealand and label this clearly on both the front and the back of the packaging."

Walls:
"Wall's sausages are manufactured in our Manchester production facility.

Our policy is to procure as much of our pigmeat requirement as possible within the UK supply base. However, we must recognise that the UK is less than 50% self sufficient in total pigmeat. Therefore, for a major brand such as Wall's sausages, in addition to our UK supply base, we are obliged to source additional supplies from a select group of European producers who can deliver to our standards and brand requirements. Similar audit procedures, including welfare standards, apply to this supplier list as to our UK supply base. For a smaller brand e.g. our Porkinson brand, we are able to source a consistent supply of 'outdoor reared' British meat in line with the Porkinson brand positioning.

"Our belief is that consumers want a consistent high quality product which tastes good. We maintain regular contact with our consumer focus groups who currently do not list origin of meat as a matter of priority. From mid-year we plan to include the following statement on our Wall's packaging "Our sausages are made in the UK with great tasting meat from Great Britain and the E.U.

"Wall's views the Cumberland recipe as just that - i.e. a traditional regional recipe produced all over Britain for generations, rather than the region from where the ingredients are sourced. The vast majority of Cumberland recipe sausages consumed in the UK are produced outside Cumberland.

"We are in constant communication with consumers of our products and continuously strive to meet their requirements. We are also active participants in the current industry and consumer debate regarding food labelling regulations. Should consumers desire to have country of origin listed, we would of course include such labelling in our brand communication and, as already stated, from mid-year we plan to include the following statement on our Wall's packaging "Our sausages are made in the UK with great tasting meat from Great Britain and the E.U."