Last Wednesday a Conservative MP asked a very simple question and sadly the response from the Government was very clearly NO but rather than say NO they stated a long response but the answer is clearly NO. The MP who asked the question was Henry Smith from the Crawley MP. Here is the question from him which was very simple and called for 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 was from Mark Spencer who is a Minister on the DEFRA group and instead of simply answering the question with either YES or NO, there was a very detailed reaction but it was very clear that there is no suggestion that they are planning to publish a consultation on food labelling.

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.