Customers being misled by labels, says food watchdog

Licensees should avoid misleading customers with ambiguous menu descriptions, according to the government's Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The FSA has discovered many customers are being misled by labels describing food as fresh, natural or traditional.

A survey carried out by the government watchdog discovered almost half the labels on a variety of pre-packaged foods were ambiguous.

Now publicans have also been warned to make sure the descriptions of dishes on their menus are not misleading or risk prosecution as trading standards officers are expected to crack down on inaccurate descriptions as a result of the survey.

The FSA looked at 220 foods and discovered there was widespread misuse of the terms fresh, pure, natural, traditional, original, authentic, homemade and farmhouse.

"We know that consumers often place particular value on terms like "fresh", "pure" and natural when buying food," said Rosemary Hignett, head of food labelling and standards at the FSA. "They rightly expect foods labelled with those terms to be different in some way from products that don't carry those types of descriptions."

The FSA has issued guidance for publicans, restaurateurs and manufacturers to help them comply with food labelling laws.

The FSA's guidelines in brief​

• Fresh:​ should only be used where it has a clear meaning. Emotive terms such as oven-fresh or kitchen-fresh are meaningless and should be avoided
• Natural:​ should only be used to describe food to which nothing has been added and which has only been processed to make it fit for human consumption
• Traditional:​ should be used to describe a recipe, formulation or processing method that has existed for a significant period
• Homemade:​ should be made on the premises.

For full guidance visit www.food.gov or call 020 7276 8417.