Trolley Power: Confused by UK Food Labelling?

Food labelling should be simple but it is not. Virtually every product on the supermarket shelf has its own unique set of colour codes or logos claiming to be healthy or free from one harmful thing or another. It can be a minefield working out which product is healthier to buy and labelling for animal welfare is no different. In fact, some labels you will find on meat products are positively misleading!

What to beware of...

If you care about where your meat comes from beware of the Red Tractor logo. The Red Tractor scheme, run by Assured Food Standards claims to promote good farming practices but in reality often offers little assurance to consumers beyond simple compliance with minimum legal requirements.

The Lion Mark is important for food safety, ensuring your eggs are safe to eat, but guarantees nothing about the conditions in which the eggs were laid.

What do these labels mean?

• These food labels basically confirm compliance with minimum legal regulations.
• Almost all British produce will have these labels
• The standards do nothing to prevent the serious welfare issues of confinement in cages, high stocking densities, fast-growing breeds and many mutilations.
• In fact some of the standards can be lower than DEFRA recommendations (which are not enforceable by law), e.g. high stocking density so chickens suffer from issues connected with overcrowding.
• One or two of the standards are higher than minimum legal regulations e.g. castration of pigs is not allowed.

Labels to look for...