The NFU’s much-publicised complaint against supermarket ‘fake’ farm brands appears to have hit a wall since being announced to great fanfare this summer.
The formal complaint was initially lodged by the NFU with National Trading Standards on 18 July, when the union raised concerns the prevalence of so-called ‘fake’ farm brands in Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and others risked misleading shoppers.
“The NFU’s legal team has looked at this carefully and as a result we are asking National Trading Standards (NTS) to look at whether ‘fake’ farm branding complies with the relevant legal requirements,” said NFU president Meurig Raymond at the time.
Several months on, however, there is little sign of progress and no sense of who is actually looking into the complaint. The NTS said the complaint fell outside its remit and it had advised the NFU of its position several weeks ago.
Officers at Tesco’s local trading standards office in Hertfordshire said the matter was one for the FSA, while an FSA spokesman said the complaint fell under Defra’s remit as it had “overall responsibility for food information regulations”. When approached by The Grocer this week, a spokeswoman for Defra said the matter was “one for Trading Standards”.
An NFU spokesman said the union’s legal team was still looking into how it could take the complaint forward.
Legal experts have previously questioned the complaint’s viability. One source with knowledge of the matter said this week the complaint was “not the most obvious cause for authorities to champion when there are so many other challenges”.
Tesco, Aldi and Lidl have all insisted their farm brands meet legal requirements, while Tesco UK & Ireland CEO Matt Davies said in March the provenance of its range was “bleedingly obvious”.
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