The NFU was made aware from member at its National Lamb Group Meeting in January about a labelling discrepancy on some lamb leg products sold in December 2014.
Upon receipt of this information the NFU contacted Sainsburys to clarify exactly what had happened with this product in question and whether or not it was British or New Zealand.
A Sainsburys spokesperson responded: “As you know, we are long-term supporters of British farming and we sell British lamb whenever we can when it is in season and our Taste the Difference, Organic and counter lamb are British all year round so as a result we take this complaint very seriously. We’ve carried out a full investigation with the supplier and this mistake was caused by a manual labelling error. The lamb was of New Zealand origin but incorrect British labels were used. We know from our investigation that very few were affected before the mistake was picked up and corrected. There was certainly never any intention to mislead and we’re following up with the supplier to make sure they have all the correct controls in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again”
The NFU in reply has asked Sainsbury’s to keep them informed of what new measures they put in place to prevent this from happening again and understand in more detail about how many products were affected. The NFU reiterated the importance that British product is not undermined by that from another origin. The product was processed at Randall Parker Foods.
The NFU asks that all members inform us of any labelling discrepancies they come across in their weekly shops. Members can tweet and facebook pictures of foul play.