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Which? calls for law reform over ‘misleading’ food labels
Labelling of some foods is misleading consumers over the ingredients in the product and should be changed, according to consumer organisation Which?
A report in the latest issue of Which? magazine called for reform to food labelling rules after several consumers complained about messages on products’ packaging.
Three products were highlighted by the report as culprits of misleading consumers with names that bear little relation to the product inside.
John West’s Crab Pâté was named and shamed for containing just 20% white crab meat and 11% brown crab meat, but 40% of the white fish hoki.
Which? member Geoff Todd said: “It should be called hoki pâté with crab.”
Other products in the firing line included Aldi’s Duck and Port Pâté, which, the report said, contained just 6% duck and 0.3% port – but 45% pork and 14% chicken liver.
Discovery Guacamole Style Topping, Which? said, contained 3% rehydrated avocado but 30% cream and even more water.
Current rules on food labelling, which is controlled by Defra, require that a food must contain some proportion of the ingredient which gives it its name. But there is no requirement for a minimum percentage of content.
A spokesman for Defra told Which?: “There is no requirement as to what percentage of the ingredient the food must contain, solely that if it is named ‘crab pâté’, it must list the percentage of crab in the ingredients.”
Which? said that the rules should change. “We want to see retailers and manufacturers name their products clearly and accurately,” the organisation said.
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