Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the UK Baking Industry Code of Practice for the Labelling of Sourdough Bread and Rolls, published by the Association of Bakery Ingredient Manufacturers on 31 January 2023.

The Government welcomes the development of a code of practice by the UK baking industry to help with consistency and best practice in relation to the labelling of sourdough bread and rolls. We encourage all those involved in the production and marketing of sourdough to work together to ensure the code represents the best interests of all involved.

Industry codes of practice can provide a useful resource to support a level playing field for businesses. It should be noted that these are not authoritative statements of law, existing food labelling legislation ensures that the labelling and marketing of food does not mislead consumers. The Government has no plans to introduce new regulations on the use of the term sourdough.

The Government is committed to optimising the information that is available to consumers, and the Government Food Strategy sets out work that we will be taking forward on consumer information and transparency.