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Labelling and presentation of fresh food in some stores can be very misleading, IFA president Joe Healy and dairy executive Catherine Lascurettes have warned.
The pair were launching the IFA’s Christmas campaign, ‘Fairness for Farmers, Honesty for Consumers’.
Listen to "Beware of fake Irish labeling on food" on Spreaker.
The campaign centres on misleading labelling and discounted food products in the run-up to Christmas.
“Some supermarkets fudge the information around provenance when it comes to private, own-label products,” warned Lascurettes.
“We know that Irish consumers value Irish-produced food and retailers know it too, and seek to exploit that.
“In a recent Bord Bia survey, it found that 67% of Irish consumers believe buying local is important.”
When asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if the current labelling laws are being abused, she said that labelling legislation makes it clear that the information on the label should not be misleading to the consumer.
“So I would contend that some of what we’re seeing at the moment should be tackled as being confusing and misleading.
“Some of the reaction to previous such issues being raised with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which is in charge of dealing with food labelling, would have suggested that it’s okay for food suppliers or processors to actually put additional voluntary information on the label.”
If that additional voluntary information is a tri-colour, which suggests that it’s produced in Ireland when it’s coming from the Ukraine and non-EU [in the case of chicken], then my view is that that is misleading to the consumer.
However, Lascurettes also highlighted that Irish-sounding brand names, such as Rathdaragh and Egan’s, may not have 100% Irish products under their labels.
Holding up a packet of sliced chicken, she said: “It says produced in Ireland, but at the back of the package it says produced using EU and non-EU chicken.”
“Another point which we’ve made is that we have registered brands, the National Dairy Council (NDC) mark and the Bord Bia quality mark, there’s a halo effect to those. They convey a certain concept of provenance.
“In the case of the NDC, what the brand tells you that if it is printed, then the organisation which has put it on its product has a licence to do so and that means meeting certain criteria.
“But under the same brand name, Coolree Creamery in Lidl, you’ll see milk that features that NDC mark and milk [under the same brand name] that doesn’t, because it’s not processed in Ireland, whether it’s produced in Ireland is unclear.
“I think it’s a case that one product with the mark tends to spread the benefit of it in the mind of the consumer and that’s quite confusing.”
Fake farms
Another point which Lascurettes said that fruit and vegetable farmers feel strongly about, is that they supply fruit and vegetables which end up being presented under fake farms or fake creamery names, with an Irish name.
“So you have Coolree Creamery [Lidl’s own brand milk], I can tell you there is no such place. There is no such person or business producing Egan’s Irish mushrooms or salad potatoes [for Aldi].
“There’s also no such thing as Connell Farms producing eggs for Lidl, nor is there such a thing as Healy Farms producing eggs for Aldi.”
She said that this denies the consumer the opportunity to make an informed choice, including the choice of supporting the local economy.
Photos of farmers
“The other thing is that if you go into stores, chances are you’ll see photos of farmers staring down at you and you see them in television ads and see them in brochures.
“You know you’ll come to the conclusion that here is a retailer that cares about their suppliers greatly and cares so much about them that they will make sure that they will get paid properly for the product they receive.
“There’s no such commitment, there’s no commitment whatsoever to the economic sustainability of primary producers in any of the retailers.
“This is all bad for consumer and farmer confidence.”
Flags of convenience
Just because there is a tri-colour on a food product doesn’t mean that it originates from the Republic of Ireland, she said.
So how can the consumer be sure that they support quality, Irish product?
“Consumers are advised to look out for their local co-op brands in your local supermarket when it comes to fresh milk and cream, combined with the NDC guarantee.
“What it tells you is that if it features on the pack, the organisation that packed that milk is sourcing it nationally within the Republic and packaging it within the Republic.
“What we also recommend, when it comes to other foods, is to look out for the Bord Bia quality mark.
“This is a fully fledged quality assurance scheme and what it tells you is that the product is meeting certain standards, including traceability, animal welfare, care of the environment, etc,” she said.
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