Making Local Food Work has reported that a fifth of all food labelled as “local” is misleading.
A fifth of products tested in 300 shops, restaurants, markets and factories make false claims about their provenance and requests for much tighter regulation have been made.
Local Government Regulation (LGR) inspectors, testing 558 products, found for example ‘Welsh lamb’ that came from New Zealand, ‘Somerset butter’ from Scotland and ‘Devon ham’ from Denmark. The LGR said the origin of a further 14% of products was unverifiable, so claims they were local were assumed to be false too. The survey also found cases where ice cream marketed as local was a well-known brand and ‘fresh local cream’ that was actually a cream substitute with vegetable fat. Restaurants had the highest incidence of false claims (19%), while manufacturers had the fewest (11%).
Jennifer Smith, of the Making Local Food Work programme – which works with communities across England looking to set up and run local food businesses – commented: “This research clearly highlights the increasing demand from consumers for local food, which in turn leads to farmers, retailers, restaurants and others wanting to move towards the local food market, but it’s clear that much tighter regulations are needed to ensure consumers aren’t misled by false labeling.
“People are looking for food they can trust. Currently, the only ways they can do this without potentially being misinformed is by buying direct from the producer, buying through a trusted supplier such as a FARMA certified farmers’ markets or even developing long term partnerships with local farmers and food producers.
“The news that a fifth of food labeled as ‘local’ is misleading actually provides a fantastic opportunity for real local food producers to promote their produce through clear labelling which really shouts about the provenance of their food.”
Making Local Food Work has already helped over 1.4 million people gain access to locally produced food through supporting community food enterprises like farmers’ markets, community-owned shops and community supported agriculture projects. It has just launched a new project – Local Food Systems – in six regions across the country in order to create a more sustainable, transparent local food network, helping more and more people to take control of where their food comes from.
