Wall’s sausages in food labelling campaign focus
November 2009
Wall’s has been put in a spot for selling Lincolnshire and Cumberland sausages in packs that do not reveal that the meat comes from Europe.
The Sunday Telegraph, as part of the newspaper’s ongoing campaign for more clarity in food labelling about where produce comes from, investigated the food brand Wall’s. The newspaper revealed that supermarkets and manufacturers do not have a clear labelling policy to reveal origins of the meat.
Wall’s, which is owned by Irish food producer Kerry Group, clarified that meat was from Denmark, Holland and Germany, as well as Britain and markers ‘Lincolnshire’ and ‘Cumberland’ only referred to the recipe and not the origin of the meat.
Barney Kay, general manager of the National Pig Association, the British pig industry representatives, attacked the company, saying “the consumer is being misled”.
“Wall’s is an iconic British brand, but they are extremely funny about saying where their meat comes from.” stated Chris Lamb, spokesman for BPEX (British Pig Executive)
Frank Hayes, Kerry Group director of corporate affairs estimated that half of Wall’s meat came from Britain. He said that there was not enough pork in Britain to meet demand.
He stated: “We don’t state the origin but in fact we source what we can from the UK market and complement that with supplies from audited European producers.”
Tesco also accepted that the meat in its ’standard’ Lincolnshire and Cumberland sausages comes from Europe. They promised to introduce new labelling rules specifying country of origin of meat.
The Sunday Telegraph previously reported about the sandwich chain Pret a Manger, criticising it for describing as “fresh” sushi made from fish shipped from Chile and chicken sourced from Brazil.
In a Brand Republic poll on what Pret should do in response, 50% of the readers said it should run a new marketing campaign to restore its image while 25% said it should redesign its packaging.
