Supermarkets need to label food origin clearly
Especially supermarket’s own brands are in the spotlight – unfortunately, it is not illegal to call a company or product something as long as it has a certain code that shows the origins of the product. The problem with these codes is that no one actually knows them all as the list is seemingly endless.
Avril Allshire of Rosscarbery Black Pudding made me aware of the identification marks on packaging, especially on meat packs and ever since, we never pick without checking.
It is the oval mark that has a country code on top, a number code in the middle which is the national approval number of the processing facility and letters on the bottom which are either EC, EG etc. which simply stands for the European Economic Community.
The only thing you can really take away is the country code as it shows the origin of the product – so when it says IE, you can be assured that it is an Irish product.
Fake farm packaging is rather harmful to Irish farmers who have to adhere to strict regulations which costs a fortune and it is harmful to the consumer as his/her choice was taken away.
I am talking about the right to make a choice based on correct information – not sure about you but I can get rather angry when someone lies to me.
The Food Safety Authority Ireland put some recommendations in place to try to counteract the misuse of ‘artisan’, ‘farmhouse’ etc. but the food labelling laws have not changed apart from the allergens regulations.
A few years back I interviewed JP McMahon on his quest to get supermarkets to change their ways but we concluded that only the consumer can bring change by their shopping habits. That means all of us – we need to choose wisely when buying food.
It is not enough to just get angry about the way supermarkets are playing with us. I don’t want to point any specific supermarket out as I am sure all of them are guilty I some way – but in saying that, a lot of them also do good things for Irish producers.
Aldi and Lidl have a programme that allows Irish products on their shelves for a period of times and if it sells well, will be stocked permanently. Dunnes has the Simply Better range where the packaging is quite detailed on the origins of the producers (they are not all Irish but it is clearly stated).
This is what my hope is for the future that all supermarkets are proud of their efforts to support smaller producers and focusing on Irish made produce. Let’s hope that lawmakers, supermarkets and producers can work together to create a shopping culture that is open and fair so that our farmers and producers get a fair price for their hard work and we get beautifully produced food.