Anger greets proposal to add meat details to sarnie labels

Proposed guidelines for labelling meat sandwiches look set to cause a major row - especially if they result in the recommendation that the fronts of packs reveal protein that is 'reformulated' and the percentage of meat content.

The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors), which oversees the activities of trading standards officers, wants the industry to agree definitions for whole, formed and reformed meat contents to give consumers a clearer indication of what is in their sandwiches. The new guidelines would cover both prepacked and freshly-made product, but are likely to hit fresh-made businesses hardest.

The most controversial proposal is for front-of-pack labelling of, for example, a sandwich made from 'reformed ham', where there are currently no other ingredient details on packs. Under this proposal, sandwiches sold in supermarkets which contained the same information in ingredient lists on the pack back would be exempt.

Jim Winship, director of The British Sandwich Association, said: "We are concerned that the sandwich industry shouldn't be used as a lever to get at the meat industry. We resist putting the term reformed on the front of a pack when it's not really going to do anything for anyone; the consumer doesn't necessarily understand the term and it's a negative.

"I know Lacors would love to see sandwich labelling go across the whole industry, but the practicalities of doing it in a catering or a sandwich bar environment where they are making on site, is just about impossible. They've got to change the legislation if they want to do that."

Lacors already has the Food Standards Agency on side. "It's really about trying to find some form of labelling which separates out ham with a high meat content from that which has high levels of added water, starch and other ingredients," said Lacors' food policy officer Les Bailey.

"Unless you've got an ingredients list where the meat content of the ham can be quantified, there is no way the consumer can tell whether the ham sandwich they have in front of them contains ham with 95% meat or ham with 75% meat and it's the same with chicken. You have to be up-front in the name of the sandwich; so it's a 'ham (reformed ham) salad: 85% meat', or whatever."

Lacors is hoping to come up with final draft guidelines for consultation early next month.