Huw Irranca-Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of consumer confidence in the authenticity of British food.

George Eustice

Defra has not recently carried out its own assessment of consumer confidence in the authenticity of British food. However in 2013 consumer research carried out by both IGD and Mintel showed an increase in consumer trust in British food.

The IGD ShopperVista survey carried out in March 2013 found that shoppers are now nearly one and a half times more likely to buy British food than they were six years ago, with younger shoppers and families driving this growth. The Mintel report on Consumer Trust in Food, published in June 2013, found that the factor most encouraging consumer trust in food was the use of British ingredients (48%), with product origin on packaging also seen as a key factor (43%).

The Government is committed to clear and consistent labelling to help consumers make informed decisions about the food that they buy. On 13 December 2013, the European Commission adopted an Implementing Regulation setting out the detailed rules for mandatory country of origin labelling for fresh and frozen, unprocessed, pre-packed pork, poultry, sheep and goat meat. The rules come into force on 1 April 2015. Defra is reviewing with the UK food industry the current industry principles for meat labelled as ‘British’, with a view to re-launching and reinforcing them alongside the new European mandatory labelling requirement.