NFU challenges supermarkets’ use of ‘fake farm’ brands
The National Trading Standards Institute is being asked to investigate whether “fake farm” brands, as used by an increasing number of supermarkets to differentiate their food products, comply with the law.
The NFU has written to formally complain to Trading Standards over the use of “fake farm” branding, following concerns expressed by members.
They have suggested that the use of such labels – including Tesco’s “Woodside Farms” and “Boswell Farms” – might be misleading shoppers, who assume they contain only British produce.
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To back up the claim, the NFU commissioned a YouGov survey in early June.
This revealed that at least three in five respondents, who believed such products were “definitely” or “probably” British, would feel misled if this was not the case and were told that the product could be from another country.
NFU president Meurig Raymond said: “The NFU’s legal team has looked at this carefully and as a result we are asking National Trading Standards to look at whether “fake farm” branding complies with the relevant legal requirements.
“I have spoken to senior management at Tesco to highlight our members’ concerns about the use of these fake farm brands.
“I urge all retailers to consider seriously the results of our survey, which show that mixing imported product with British product under the same fictional farm name can be misleading.
“I am pleased that Aldi has now made a commitment to only source British product in their fictional farm brands by the end of March 2017.”
NFU Cymru president Stephen James, speaking ahead of this year’s Royal Welsh Show, said: “These fake farm brands are completely unacceptable and we believe are misleading consumers. This practice has been going on across the retail sector for a long time and enough is enough.”
“Country-of-origin labeling is important because we know from consumer surveys that shoppers want to buy British food products; clearly, consumers cannot exercise that choice without clear country-of-origin labeling.”