Morrisons, Budgens and the major discounters have come under fire for “ambiguous” labelling of pork products.
Morrisons was ranked eighth in a Bpex survey of pork product labelling at 10 retailers after researchers found just 60% of its pork products featured specific country-of-origin statements on pack – down 14% on three years ago when the survey was last conducted.
Budgens only managed sixth place, having reduced the proportion of pork products with country-of-origin statements from 100% to 65%. However, Lidl and Aldi – surveyed for the first time – were the worst performers, with just 40% and 22% respectively.
The report was compiled following a Bpex review of 260 packets of pork products across 10 different retailers in January this year. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer topped the list, boasting 100% and 96% clearly labelled products respectively.
Sainsbury's, in third, showed the most improvement, having upped the proportion of products with specific country information from 76% in 2006 to 94%. And Tesco, which has come in for criticism for its labelling this year, was placed fifth, having increased the proportion of packs appropriately labelled from 67% to 72%. Asda, in seventh place, was praised for improving from 47% to 64% but Bpex said its approach still included “much that is unsatisfactory”.
“While we can report progress in some areas, there still remains much ambiguity and, in some instances, a complete absence of information – a case of two steps forward and one step back,” said Bpex chairman Stewart Houston.
The challenge now was to ensure the issue of more transparent labelling did not “slip away”, added Bpex head of marketing, Chris Lamb. To prevent this happening, Bpex would roll out a consumer PR programme in the coming months “to ensure the issue is being kept up there in consumers’ consciousness”, he said.
Morrisons was ranked eighth in a Bpex survey of pork product labelling at 10 retailers after researchers found just 60% of its pork products featured specific country-of-origin statements on pack – down 14% on three years ago when the survey was last conducted.
Budgens only managed sixth place, having reduced the proportion of pork products with country-of-origin statements from 100% to 65%. However, Lidl and Aldi – surveyed for the first time – were the worst performers, with just 40% and 22% respectively.
The report was compiled following a Bpex review of 260 packets of pork products across 10 different retailers in January this year. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer topped the list, boasting 100% and 96% clearly labelled products respectively.
Sainsbury's, in third, showed the most improvement, having upped the proportion of products with specific country information from 76% in 2006 to 94%. And Tesco, which has come in for criticism for its labelling this year, was placed fifth, having increased the proportion of packs appropriately labelled from 67% to 72%. Asda, in seventh place, was praised for improving from 47% to 64% but Bpex said its approach still included “much that is unsatisfactory”.
“While we can report progress in some areas, there still remains much ambiguity and, in some instances, a complete absence of information – a case of two steps forward and one step back,” said Bpex chairman Stewart Houston.
The challenge now was to ensure the issue of more transparent labelling did not “slip away”, added Bpex head of marketing, Chris Lamb. To prevent this happening, Bpex would roll out a consumer PR programme in the coming months “to ensure the issue is being kept up there in consumers’ consciousness”, he said.
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