A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
News on food labelling continues this week with the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) announcing yesterday that it has issued a formal guidance to the food industry on the labelling they should use to make it easier for people to understand the origin of their food.
The guidance aims to clarify 'origin labelling' on processed products in order to ensure that consumers are not misled as to the origin of the ingredients used. It also contains examples of best practice, "to encourage industry to adopt more consistent and transparent labelling practices," the FSA said this week.
The FSA claims that the new advice is "to help manufacturers, producers, retailers and caterers comply with the law and provide additional voluntary information in a way that is helpful to consumers".
Today, there is clearly mounting pressure on food manufacturers to ensure that the food label is a window to transparency and traceability. Only this week we reported that the European Council had cleared tougher food labelling proposals which put an end to the o-called '25 per cent rule' and, if passed, will mean that all ingredients present in a foodstuff will be present on the label.
According to research carried out by the FSA, better country of origin labelling is high on the list of consumers' priorities for change. Rosemary Hignett, head of food labelling at the FSA said: "Clearer labelling and information on country of origin are important to UK consumers. We are pressing for change to legislation in Europe. But we believe that industry does not have to wait for Europe, and can take its own action now to ensure that the labelling on their products is clearer and unambiguous. The new guidance will help them to do that."
Research was carried out by the FSA between 3 December 2001 and 29 March 2002 and takes into account the views of consumers, enforcers and industry gathered during a wide-ranging public consultation on draft advice. Findings suggest that, for example, for many consumers, terms such as: 'produce of', 'product of', 'origin', 'British', 'Scottish', 'Welsh', imply that the place of processing and the origin of ingredients are the same.
The FSA advises that these terms "only be used where all the significant ingredients come from the identified country and all of the main production/manufacturing processes associated with the food occur within that place or country".
With one exception, "for products, such as chocolate, where certain ingredients (in this case cocoa beans) cannot come from the country in question", states the FSA.
Radical changes are also recommended in the labelling of meat. The agency claims that meat labelling has been a source of confusion in the past among consumers because livestock may be born, reared and slaughtered in different countries.
As a consequence, it is suggesting that for meat, other than beef or veal (which are already subject to detailed rules covered in an annex to its advice), "single country origin declarations should only be given where animals have been born, reared and slaughtered in the same country. Otherwise, information on each of the countries of birth, rearing and slaughter should be given".
If the place of origin of the food is not the same as the place of origin of the primary ingredients, it may be necessary to provide information on the origin of these ingredients, added the FSA.
As an example the agency is suggesting that "bacon or ham made in Britain using Danish pork should not be described as 'British ham' but could be described as 'Danish pork cured in Britain'". Which, by all accounts, seems to be a vote for common sense.
Further information about the 'Food Labelling: Country of Origin' advice is available on the FSA website.