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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2020 to Question 49873 on food labelling, how many times food labelling has been found to have breached the updated rules that state the country of origin or place of provenance of a primary ingredient, which is not the same as that given or indicated on a food as a whole, must also be included on the label.

The new labelling of the country of origin of primary ingredients rules apply across the EU and the UK. However, legislation enabling the rules to be enforced must be made through domestic regulations and, as food labelling is a devolved matter, will be introduced by separate statutory instruments in England and the devolved administrations.

The rules came into force less than 3 months ago (on 1 April). The enforcement legislation for England, following a statutory obligation to consult on food matters like these, was laid in Parliament in May and will come into force on 18 June.

We do not yet have any data on compliance with these new rules.