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The Agency commissioned a package of research to find out more about how people understand and use food labels, including ‘country of origin’ labels. The results will both improve the information we have on this subject and also help to inform discussions about a European proposal on food labelling.
Key findings included:
• there is awareness of 'origin labelling', but it is not a main concern for consumers when shopping
• when asked on which foods they would like to see origin labelling, people most frequently mentioned meat and meat products
• price and food safety information on labels were considered by consumers to be, on the whole, more important than country of origin labelling
• some consumers are willing to pay a small amount more if the origin of their food is important to them
• consumers are confused about whether ‘country of origin’ refers to where animals are born, raised or slaughtered or whether this refers to where a food product has been produced
• 78% of meat and meat products now carry a country of origin statement, compared with 69% in 2005
• 44% of meat products now give the origin of meat ingredients – this has more than doubled since 2005 when only 19% of products gave this information
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2010/jan/coolresearch
