Lidl is revamping its entire fresh meat and poultry range in a bid to push its growing British credentials.

Under the new strapline ‘Like Meat, Love Lidl’, Lidl unveiled new Birchwood and Strathvale branded meat and poultry packs, this week, carrying a watermark of the Union Jack to emphasise provenance. The labels also feature sketches of animals, which a spokeswoman said brought a more rustic feel to the packaging.

The German discounter is hoping to highlight its status as the supermarket with the largest proportion of fresh British products carrying the Red Tractor mark - 80% according to a survey carried out by Red Tractor last year.

However, Lidl’s claim could prove controversial. The survey is more than a year old now and only assessed products from one Lidl store. It also focused solely on the Red Tractor logo, meaning retailers that used other country of origin indicators to denote UK provenance automatically performed worse than Lidl.

A Lidl spokeswoman insisted the survey was robust. “We haven’t overstated anything, the facts are clear and we performed well in the survey,” she said.

As well as celebrating the Jubilee and the Olympic Games the rebranding would “reflect the enthusiasm Lidl has for working with British farmers and sourcing its produce as locally as possible”, the company added, while challenging the perception that Lidl’s range consisted mainly of products sourced from the Continent.

Lidl also surveyed its customers on Facebook, which revealed that 66% of its shoppers prefer their fresh meat to be British.

Red Tractor CEO David Clarke said Lidl’s growing range of Red Tractor products “demonstrates their continued commitment to quality food”.

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