Making sense of food labelling

There's been a lot of discussion in the media recently on finding out exactly where our food is coming from. Suddenly shoppers are paying a lot more attention to the labels on food packaging, but understanding them is not always easy.

Two things have prompted this blog post. Firstly, my friend Bill the butcher from Dunston Park Farm shop told me that meat labelled “British” doesn’t necessarily have to have been born and raised in the UK - as long as it was processed here. So for example, pork could be imported from Europe and then processed into sausages in the UK, and labelled as British sausages.

And secondly, my boss forwarded an email to me saying a similar thing - again claiming that food can be labelled as “made in the UK” as long as the final processing and packaging took place here.

So it seems that we as consumers need to do a lot more than just skim-read the labels to find out where our food comes from.

Avoiding the supermarkets is giving me a real headstart when it comes to finding out the story behind my food. Most of the farm shops, market stalls and delis that I’ve been visiting actively promote greater awareness of where their produce originates from and it tends to be much more transparent and easy to understand than the information provided to supermarket customers.

From the posters in SoundBites wholefood store, in Derby, explaining about the Spanish farming co-operative behind their olive oil, to the lamb at Highfield House Farm Shop, near Chesterfield, that is born and raised in the surrounding fields, and the labels in Brown and Green store, in Derby, telling me how many miles the locally brewed beer has travelled, it is evident that shopping local is the way forward if you want to find food you can trust.

The good news is that when it comes to meat, food labelling is set to get clearer. New EU laws made in 2011 mean that from 2015 fresh meat must be labelled with its country of origin - as well as the country where it was processed.

But in the meantime, there are some labels that shoppers can look out for....

QUALITY STANDARD: This means that meat has been produced through an independently-audited supply chain, and St George's flag on the mark indicates that the meat has come from an animal born, raised and slaughtered in England.

RED TRACTOR (ASSURED FOOD STANDARDS): This mark can be found on chicken, pork, lamb, beef, fruit, vegetables, salad, flour, sugar and dairy products, and indicates that the food can be traced back to farms producing under Assured Food Standards. These cover all aspects of production, including the need for safe food storage and transport. The emphasis is on good practice in relation to protecting the environment. Standards for livestock, poultry and dairy production are based on the Five Freedoms, as defined by the Farm Animal Welfare Council - freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from pain, injury of disease, freedom from discomfort, freedom from fear and distress, and freedom to express normal behaviour. Products where the red tractor logo is set against a Union Flag background have been born, raised, slaughtered, grown, prepared and packaged entirely within the UK.

FREEDOM FOOD (RSPCA MONITORED): This mark can be found on meat, poultry, salmon, dairy and egg products and indicates that the food has been produced according to the RSPCA’s welfare standards. These are based on the Five Freedoms (listed above. The RSPCA maintains that its standards are more comprehensive than the welfare requirements of current UK and EU legislation. Whilst the majority of the foods carrying this quality mark are produced in the UK, this is not actually part of the criteria.

SOIL ASSOCIATION ORGANIC: Under EU law food labelled as organic must be certified by an accredited body, and certification from the Soil Association means that premises are checked at least once a year to make sure there is no use of artificial pesticides, fertilisers or GM materials in the growing of crops or rearing of animals. Strict regulations define what organic farmers can and cannot do – and place a strong emphasis on the protection of wildlife and the environment.