Beef Labelling Comment

“Where our food comes from is of increasing importance to the consumer and we must ensure that they are confident that the claims made on labels can be upheld.

“I champion the cause of our butchers in promoting Scottish beef and veal and encourage them to work with us in reviewing the beef labelling regime and determining where we can reduce red tape and compliance costs whilst ensuring provenance claims can be verified and consumer confidence strengthened.

“We are also pursuing changes to the food labelling regime at EU level on mandatory origin labelling for meat, meat and dairy products in the Food Information to Consumers Regulations (FIR) negotiations. Part of this engagement includes changes to the voluntary beef labelling regime at both EU and domestic level.”

“In parallel to these negotiations, we are encouraging voluntary provenance declarations on menus through the Provenance Toolkit (provenanceonaplate.co.uk), launched in March. The toolkit is designed for the food and drink service sector to help hotels, restaurants etc. to get more provenance information onto menus with clear advice to customers on where their food has come from.”