Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to promote (a) local and (b) British produce through food labelling.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Accurate and informative food labelling helps people know the quality and provenance of their food. Most food for sale in the UK is labelled with the country of origin and producers are developing labelling to show the provenance of their food whether it is local to the community in which it is sold or made in Britain. The Government wants this to continue and will do what we can to protect the UK’s iconic food and drink.
Protected Food Names, for example Traditional Welsh Cider and Traditional Welsh Perry, offer an effective way to demonstrate great local and UK food and we are working to increase the number of products covered by the protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed schemes (TSG): the newest being Conwy Mussels.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what meetings her Department has had with supermarkets to discuss ensuring their packaging for produce and goods is recyclable.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Department has regular meetings and conversations with retailer stakeholder groups and representatives from the packaging industry, including representatives of supermarkets. The Department also works through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on wide-ranging initiatives aimed at increasing recycling. Many of these initiatives, including the Courtauld Commitment, involve supermarkets.
Asked by: Nick Smith (Labour - Blaenau Gwent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the budget is for food produced for her Department's offices at Smith Square, London; and what proportion of food produced for her Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra does not set a budget for food served in the canteen at its Smith Square offices (Nobel House). Catering services are provided by a private company under contract to Defra which leases facilities in Nobel House and provides food to staff without subsidy. Spending on food is determined by the contractor based on sales receipts from Defra staff.
Defra has worked with its current supplier to align the existing contract with the requirements of the balanced scorecard.
The amount of food sourced from British producers for Nobel House was 56% (Jan-Mar 2016). This figure includes non-indigenous products; including drinks such as tea and coffee. It marks, overall, an improvement of 4% over the previous quarter. Furthermore, all meat, milk and yoghurt served in Nobel House is produced in the UK.