In its quest to boost the profile of British Farming the NFU has launched a campaign encouraging the public to photograph confusing food labels and upload them to Facebook. The union’s new ‘Flag It’ campaign is part of a drive to increase the use of country of origin labelling.

image expired

The union said on Friday (12th October) that it has engaged with supermarkets including Tesco to increase the amount of labelling, and make labels clearer so as to avoid confusing consumers. Tesco has begun to make moves to improve origin labelling on its cheeses in line with the union’s desires.

However, The NFU has repeatedly supported the Red Tractor assurance scheme, which has been accused of misleading consumers by claiming its logo represents high welfare. The assurance scheme denotes British production and in August the Advertising Standards Authority banned a series of Red Tractor adverts, upholding claims that the use of the statement “Red Tractor pork is high welfare pork” was misleading.

Earlier in the year, Defra introduced voluntary country of origin labelling principles, which former Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said would bolster consumer confidence and support for farmers, as consumers made food choices along more patriotic or localist lines. However, The NFU has expressed concerns that labelling remains scare across a range of foods, particularly cheese and dairy products.

NFU director of corporate affairs Tom Hind said the union would use images submitted to challenge supermarkets on their commitments to labelling. He said, “While genuine improvements have been made in labelling over the past few years, there are still examples where labels on many products are not clear and can confuse consumers into thinking that they are buying British produce when they are not. So the idea behind the Flag It campaign is to get as many retailers as possible to ensure that labelling, especially on own-brand products, is crystal clear, so consumers know what they are getting.”

Tweet