Country of origin labels on sausages confuses consumers

Consumers are confused by country of origin labelling on processed meat such as sausages, according to research published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Consumers frequently take origin labels to indicate the source of ingredients, for example where pigs were born, raised and slaughtered, rather than the country in which the sausages were made. The latter was the current purpose of such labels, said the FSA.

The studies found that while there was an awareness of origin labelling, it was not the main concern for consumers when shopping. Price and food safety information were considered to be more important.

However, consumers did express a desire for meat and meat products to be labelled. And some, for whom the origin of their food is important, are willing to pay a small amount more for it.

Around 78% of meat and meat products carry a country of origin statement, compared with 69% in 2005. 44% of meat products give the origin of meat ingredients, compared with just 19% in 2005.

Food labelling rules are set in Europe and are currently under review within the Food Information Regulation. Under present rules, foods such as beef, and certain fruit and vegetables, must have labels saying what country they are from.

But most foods - including ham, pies, sausages and ready meals - only need to include this information if not giving it would be misleading. Food that has undergone a substantial change, such as turning pork into sausages, can be labelled as ‘produced in the UK’, even though the pig may have been born, reared or slaughtered in another country.

Tim Smith, chief executive of the FSA, said: “This research shows that even though ‘country of origin’ isn’t a top priority for consumers, confusion remains over what ‘Produced in the UK’ actually means.

“The issue is not about more origin labelling but the need for greater clarity on the labels on some of our most popular foods.”

Under proposed EU labelling rules, suppliers making origin claims will have to provide further information, so people know where their food comes from, not just where it was processed, Smith added.

“We support this approach as it effectively strengthens and gives legal backing to key elements of the existing FSA voluntary labelling guidance,” said Smith. “We will use the results of this research to inform our discussions in Brussels.”
While the supermarket-led British Retail Consortium (BRC) backed the FSA's findings, it was not clear whether it would support the mandatory country of origin labelling of ingredients in compound own-label foods such as pies and sausages.

BRC food director Andrew Opie said: “Many retailers provide information well beyond the legal requirements and give the country of origin for the ingredients of manufactured products even though it’s not a statutory requirement. Stores provide this extra detail where they judge it will be useful to their customers.”

Policy advisor for consumers’ body Which? Sue Davies, however, has called for mandatory labelling of country of origin of all meat and meat based products such as sausages and pies.

“We think there is a real opportunity to address this with the Food Information Regulation,” said Davies. “Although we’ve got voluntary guidance and some people follow it, if it is set out in legislation then it should help to prevent people from being misled.”

She accepted that things became more difficult with processed foods and that a proportionate approach was called for, “but if you’ve got something like a sausage, which is a meat product … then we think that is something that should be labelled and so we would like to see the legislation going further”

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) also supports greater clarity of labelling where country of labelling is voluntarily displayed on products. “We would support tightening that up,” said director Stephen Rossides.

However, he was against mandatory labelling of compound products such as pies and sausages, because of issues related to determining the proportions of different ingredients present in products and deciding what thresholds should be set. “We are not convinced it should be mandatory,” he said.