Swaddles Swindle

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

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You may have read this week about the jailing of the director of an organic food company for fraudulent trading. The so-called “Organic, Natural and Ethical” company called Onefood, was also known as Swaddles Organic.

Neil Stansfield bought non-organic pork pies and salmon from sources including Tesco and Waitrose, removed the packaging and re-packaged the products as organic and premium, selling them to retailers including Fortnum & Mason, making considerable margin in the process. In total, over a few years, this unscrupulous trader had netted over £500,000 in profits.

Several issues are raised by this disturbing story!

I am surprised that the buyers at Fortnum & Mason and Stansfield’s other customers could not taste the difference between Tesco pork pies and an organic and natural premium pork pie commanding twice the retail price. The conclusion here could be drawn in two different ways:

a) The buyers didn’t taste the products. There is a warning here – food buyers should taste what they stock in their shops – their name depends on it! I am always wary of very thin-looking buyers and much more comfortable with those who look like they enjoy their food.

b) There is no real difference in taste between premium organic and supermarkets’ own label products. If this is true we are all in trouble, but there is sometimes too much hype over certain products and not enough taste. The massive premium commanded by certain organic products leaves the industry open to criminals like Stansfield. We should work together in the sector to get the price of very good (i.e. normal) food products closer to cheaper ones. This would be done by forcing the supermarkets to produce proper food, banning certain common practices to cut costs, whilst at the same time perhaps those selling premium products to make a bit less margin and sell more.

c) The buyer’s taste buds had died! No comment!

Clearly this story does some degree of damage to those of us who are running ethical and natural businesses, but all the more reason to encourage tastings of our products, invite our customers to our premises and provide details of provenance to reassure our consumers.

The story also raises the question of how widespread fraud is within the gourmet food world? I hope this is an isolated example, but we need to keep our wits about us. From all accounts, the speciality food market continues to grow even in the recession, and could become a target for criminals making a quick buck.

Finally, on a related subject, but in reality a completely different question. Do we pull the wool over our customers’ eyes at all? Best before dates – are these made shorter than necessary, to encourage retailers to sell off cheaper near the end of date and then order more? If we hear consumers telling their friends that the fruit and veg in our farm shop is organic, when it isn’t, do we step in and correct them or believe a lie? Are retailers in the speciality sector changing the dates on products when they are getting near the end of their shelf life? Are there “local” products in our shops that are not really local? I use these four examples as I have personally heard that all four things have been done within the last six months.

Food for Thought!

I am grateful to Jason Gibb at Nudo for drawing my attention to the Swaddles story and ideas for the related issues. Inspiration for this article also came from the Daily Mail and The Guardian.

Posted by Paul Hargreaves
01 October 2009, 04.38 pm