Food giant Birds Eye has dropped the words ‘Great British Menu’ from its packaging in what is being seen as a huge victory for a farmer’s Honest Labelling campaign.

The misleading packaging was highlighted by food champion Rob Ward when launching www.honestlabelling.com last week, a campaign to name and shame producers who con shoppers into thinking items are British or home-made when they are not.

More than 2,000 people visited the website in the first 48 hours – voting for the ‘Angels’ and ‘Sinners’ of the food world – with Birds Eye’s ‘Great British Menu’ attracting most of the venom. The dish uses imported meat and is manufactured in Ireland.

Although Rob commended Birds Eye for removing the erroneous wording, the new packaging – which uses the words ‘traditional’, ‘home-style gravy’ and continues to display rolling green fields – was not much better.

He said: “Rolling hills suggest the meat is from free-range sources, which it’s not; traditional suggests it has been prepared in a traditional way, when it’s prepared in a factory; and home-style gravy is just ambiguous.

“Of course I recognise that manufacturers have to sell their products to the consumer in such a competitive marketplace, but we have found countless examples of good practice and we want everyone to follow suit.”
The Food Standards Authority (FSA) makes it very clear that using ‘traditional’ as part of a product description must reflect that the product is true to the original recipe and made in a way which reflects those traditions.
“I don’t think that a product made in a substantial factory in southern Ireland reflects any traditional manufacturing process,” Rob pointed out.

Concerned that the wool was being pulled over consumers’ eyes by inaccurate and ambiguous labelling, Rob recently launched the Honest Labelling Campaign in a bid to fight food forgery. The campaign offers shoppers the opportunity to shame sinners and praise angels in the food industry and hopes to use people-power to force brands to make changes.

Rob explained: “Consumers have a right to be able to make informed choices about the food they buy and they can only do this if labelling is clear and honest, especially at this time of year when people are prepared to spend a bit more for what they believe to be authentic festive food.”

Top five worst offenders at www.honestlabelling.com:

M&S Corned beef and pickle bap:
Festooned with a Union Flag, this sandwich proclaims to be the ‘nation’s favourite’. However, the beef is from Brazil.

Peter’s Premier Pie:
The use of the St George’s Cross and association with a well-known London-based beer suggests that this product is as British as they come. You could be mistaken; the supplier has been unable to confirm
which specific country the beef is reared.

Birds Eye – Great British Menu:
Again, misleading wording combined with a misleading picture of rural England creates the idea that you are buying British. The lamb, however, is imported, and the meal is even made outside of the UK.

Tesco’s British Goose Fat Potatoes:
Tesco has refused to comment on whether the potatoes or the goose fat is from the UK. Given the swathe of support for British food, you would think they would jump at the chance to explain.

Heinz Farmers’ Market chicken and country vegetable soup:
This ‘Farmers Market’ rip-off is pretending to have rural connections. Complete with mocked up, market style writing. The final insult is ‘country’ vegetables, from where else did they think these vegetables
came from? Furthermore, which ‘country’ did they find these vegetables? They decline to tell us this on the packaging…