The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published clear criteria for using phrases such as ‘hand-made’, ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’ on food products to prevent manufacturers from misleading consumers.
The UK’s Food Safety Act, EU General Food Law (178/2002) and Directive 2000/13 on labelling already make it illegal to mislead consumers over the composition, provenance or production method of food. However, it was widely felt that many manufacturers’ marketing departments were abusing terms like ‘real’, ‘fresh’, and ‘natural’, leeching them of meaning, said the FSA.
Guidance setting out exactly when such terms could be used would therefore help local enforcement authorities provide consistent advice, it said.
For example, fish or meat that had been deep frozen and then sold thawed should not be described as ‘fresh’. And the phrase ‘freshly baked in store’ to describe bread made from part-baked products packed in an inert atmosphere or frozen off-site and then ‘baked off’ at in-store bakeries, was inappropriate.
Likewise, if a food has been vacuum packed to retain its freshness, it should not be described as ‘freshly packed’. Phrases with “emotive appeal but no real meaning” such as ‘oven fresh’, ‘garden fresh’, ‘ocean fresh’, ‘kitchen fresh’, should be avoided.
Meanwhile, where the term ‘farmhouse’ was used in connection with foodstuffs other than bread and pâté, it should only refer to products produced on a farm, said the FSA. ”Simply describing an ingredient as ‘farmhouse’, eg ‘x with farmhouse vegetables’, is meaningless. The term should not be used in this context.” Moreover, the equally vague expression ‘country style’ did “not appear to have any specific meaning” and should not be used to describe any food or food ingredient, said the FSA.
It added: “The current, widespread use of terms such as ‘real’ and ‘genuine’ in relation to individual food ingredients (eg. ‘made with real fruit juice’) is usually unjustified and repetitive.”
Claims such as ‘natural goodness’, ‘naturally better’, or ‘nature’s way’ were also deemed “confusing and ambiguous”, said the guidance document. “They should not be used and are very likely to be misleading if applied to products not meeting the ‘natural’ criteria.”
Finally, it was generally not helpful to use the phrases ‘style’ or ‘type’ to qualify the terms covered by this advice (eg ‘farmhouse style’), it added. “Research carried out on behalf of the Agency, published in 2006, found that the terms ‘traditional style’ and ‘selected’ were not easy to understand and it is suggested that their use should be avoided.”
The guidance is available on the FSA website