On Wednesday a Conservative MP asked a very simple question and sadly the response which came from the Government was obviously not YES or NO but rather the Minister stated an extensive response but the answer did not indicate YES or NO to the question. The MP who asked the question was Henry Smith who represents the Crawley MP. Here is the question from from Henry Smith which was very simple and required a very short response “To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to publish a consultation on food labelling.” The response came from Mark Spencer who is a Minister in the DEFRA group which is ordered by the DEFRA Secretary of State Therese Coffey.

The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. The Government is committed to optimising the information that is available to consumers.

For example, in 2021 Defra ran a call for evidence to gather data on the potential impacts of different types of labelling reform for animal welfare. A summary of these responses is available on GOV.UK. Based on the evidence provided, Defra committed in the Government’s Food Strategy to consult on improving and expanding mandatory animal welfare labelling in 2023.