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Get your free copy- Almost a fifth of foods marketed as 'local' in British businesses are making the claim falsely, a study has revealed
Items found to be misleading customers include ‘Welsh lamb’ from New Zealand, ‘Devon ham’ from Denmark and ‘Somerset butter’ from Scotland. The Local Government Regulation (LGR) – which oversees council regulation – conducted the study by testing 558 products labelled as ‘local’ in 300 shops, restaurants, markets and manufacturers.
It found 18% of claims to be ‘undoubtedly false’, with 14% unverifiable and presumed to be false as a result. Restaurants were found to have the the biggest number of false claims (19%), while manufacturers had the lowest (11%).
False descriptions were applied to half of poultry, 27 per cent of both beef and lamb and 24 per cent of dairy products.
LGR chairman Cllr Paul Bettison called the findings ‘extremely worrying’: “Councils are working with businesses to make sure consumers have the information they need and that they are not being ripped off.”
“Many people want to support local businesses or choose food that has not travelled from the other side of the world, so it is vital that they have accurate information to help them make their choices,” he added.
