Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

UK Food Producers

Tuesday 19 May 2020 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The UK Government co-funds a 1 million campaign to promote milk from UK producers.
  • The Government supports the fishing industry by promoting a variety of seafood species from UK waters.
  • There is a long-standing legal provision for mandatory country of origin labelling on UK beef, requiring the animal to be born, reared, and slaughtered in the UK.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Richard Bacon Con
Agriculture & Rural Affairs
Context

The question arises from the need to support and promote UK food producers in challenging times.

Question

What recent steps have been taken to promote UK food producers?

Answer from George Eustice with title

Our food and farming industry plays a crucial role in challenging times, and we are co-funding a £1 million campaign to promote milk, alongside industry and devolved Government partners. We are also supporting the fishing industry by promoting a wide variety of seafood species from UK waters. A further campaign is promoting beef across the devolved nations, and our Food is GREAT campaign, which showcases internationally products from across our four nations, has delivered successful trade and consumer focused marketing activities.

Answered
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Q2 Richard Bacon Con
Agriculture & Rural Affairs
Context

There is already mandatory country of origin labelling for various food products, and the question arises about expanding this to all meat.

Question

Given that there is already mandatory country of origin labelling for fish, fruit, vegetables, eggs, wine, honey, olive oil and beef, does the Secretary of State agree that now is the right time for mandatory country of origin labelling for all meat, so that consumers can never be misled by dodgy imports produced in conditions that would be unlawful here and which are sold as if they were British?

Answer from George Eustice with title

As my hon. Friend has pointed out, there has been a long-standing legal provision for mandatory country of origin labelling on beef, in which, to claim that the country of origin is the UK, the animal must be born, reared and slaughtered in the UK. Those regulations on mandatory country of origin labelling were extended several years ago to cover all principal meat species. They do not yet extend to processed goods that might contain multiple goods, but there have been significant steps forward in broadening the scope of mandatory country of origin labelling.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Secretary of State did not commit to expanding mandatory country of origin labelling to all meat, only acknowledging existing regulations and stating that they do not extend to processed goods.

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