Marks & Spencer plans to launch a huge relabelling scheme, to include country of origin details on its dairy products.
The move, which will be phased in from early next year, will mean that products such as cheese, butter, ice-cream and milk will inform consumers of the country from which the milk has been sourced and where the product has been made.
For example, when a dairy product has been made in the UK and all the main ingredients have been sourced from the UK - it will be labelled “Product of the UK”.
However, when all the main ingredients for a product have been sourced, made and packaged in a single country, such as St Agur cheese, it will be labelled “Product of France”. And when dairy products have been made in the UK but include foreign ingredients, such as brandy butter - a declaration of “Made in the UK with British milk” will be given, as brandy is not produced in the UK.
Marks & Spencer claimed that it will be the first major retailer in the UK “to clearly state the source of origin on all of its dairy produce”. It follows the launch of country of origin labelling on its fish and meat products.
Conservative MP, Nick Herbert, who launched the Honest Food Campaign, said that food labels often appeared to give the impression that products were British but in reality they “might have been imported and produced to inferior standards than our own”
Tesco has recently changed around 1,000 food labels on meat and fish products to indicate their country of origin. Morrisons has also committed to introducing clear statements on all products with a 10% meat content or higher, and the replacement of the sole term “produced in the UK” when a product is manufactured in the UK but contains non-British meat.
Herbert added: “Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are also backing the campaign, and Asda is reviewing its labelling. We now need all retailers and food manufacturers to follow suit - and we’ll be pressing them to do so.”