When shopping for groceries online at UK supermarkets, customers may soon encounter a significant new development.
Food labels may soon indicate when imported items do not adhere to UK environmental and animal welfare regulations, according to plans unveiled today.
The government intends to introduce a ‘buy British’ option on supermarket websites and label goods produced to the highest standards consistently as part of a broad overhaul to support UK farmers.
Educating consumers about the goods they are purchasing and persuading them to buy food from British farmers are the main goals of this campaign.
Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, expects to make an announcement later today at the Oxford Farming Conference.
However, it isn’t the case. The minister further requests that merchants implement other methods for informing customers about the source of their food.
‘British farmers take pride in producing food that meets, and often exceeds, our world-leading animal welfare and environmental standards,’ the newly-appointed Cabinet minister will announce today at the conference.
‘British consumers want to buy this top-quality food, but too often products produced to lower standards overseas aren’t clearly labelled to differentiate them.
‘This is why I am proud to announce that we will consult on clearer food labelling so we can tackle the unfairness created by misleading labelling and protect farmers and consumers.’
“Clearer labelling on food imported from abroad, and especially those that don’t meet our UK welfare standards, could be a lifeline to British farmers who are at risk of being undercut by cheap, low welfare imports flooding our shelves through free trade agreements,” stated RSPCA head of public affairs David Bowles.
But David also calls for the UK government to deliberate on a “transparent method of production labelling across the board,” which would tell customers about the animal welfare standards, in addition to clear labels for domestic and/or higher welfare goods.
David continued, saying that customers now have little access to information on the farming practices used to raise farm animals. Instead, pictures of sunny days with rolling green hills and animals can be displayed to the public, but these pictures are sometimes highly deceptive and don’t accurately depict reality.
‘This is especially true of intensive farming practices which still account for around 70% of all land farming in the UK.’
