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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the sale of foreign meat labelled as being of British origin.

The fundamental principles of our food labelling rules are that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable consumers to make informed decisions. Food from elsewhere in the world that is simply re-packaged in the UK, without any further processing, does not confer UK origin on it and therefore any suggestion that the food is from the UK would be misleading.

If processed foods, such as bacon or sausages, and composite foods, such as pies and ready meals, list that they are made in the UK but their primary ingredient is from another country then the label must highlight this: for example, a British Steak & Ale pie made, assembled and baked in the UK with beef from Ireland must state ‘Made in the UK using Irish beef’.