The Government should require that goods containing animal related products are labelled clearly according to a House of Commons motion being backed by East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight.

Under current regulations consumers have no way of telling if non-food products were made using animals.

Mr Knight is critical of the inadequacy of current labelling. He says: “If you are shopping for a pair of leather shoes then you know where they come from. But how many people know that there could be parts of sheep in their shampoo and cows in their crockery?”

Mr Knight added: “I am fully in favour of informed consumer choice and manufacturers should have to state when a shirt has buttons made from cow horns.”

“I don’t want to tell people how to shop, but I do want to empower them to make their own informed decisions”, Mr Knight concluded.

The motion is backed by MPs across all the major parties in the House of Commons.

Agriculture Minister James Paice MP has made a special visit to East Yorkshire at the invitation of Local MP Greg Knight.

The Minister was on a fact-finding visit to meet local farmers and listen to their concerns.

Mr Knight said, “I am pleased and grateful that the Minister has accepted my invitation to visit East Yorkshire. I wanted him to hear first-hand the views and concerns of local farmers.”

In addition to meeting East Yorkshire farmers the Minister met officials from the National Farmers Union. Issues discussed were rural broadband problems, flood prevention plans and the Single Farm Payment.

Afterwards, local farmer Paul Temple said the meeting was both useful and productive and he thanked the minister for coming to the East Riding to listen to their concerns.

Mr Knight added, “James Paice is a good minister and he has been involved in farming for nearly 40 years. He is someone East Yorkshire farmers can talk to and also someone who knows what he is talking about.”

 Pictured are East Riding farmers with local MP Greg Knight (fifth from left)
and Agriculture Minister James Paice MP (sixth from left) after the meeting.

Agriculture Minister James Paice MP is to make a special visit to East Yorkshire at the invitation of Local MP Greg Knight, early in the New Year.

The Minister will come to the East Riding on the 14th of January as part of a fact-finding visit to meet local farmers and listen to their concerns. Afterwards he will attend a dinner held by the East Yorkshire Conservative Association.

Mr Knight said, “I am very grateful that the Minister has accepted my invitation to visit East Yorkshire. I want him to hear first hand the views and concerns of local farmers.”

Mr Knight added, “James Paice is a good minister and he has been involved in farming for nearly 40 years. He is someone East Yorkshire farmers can talk to and who also knows what he is talking about.”

“A big step in the right direction” is how East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight has described voluntary food labelling reforms just announced by big supermarkets.

Mr Knight raised the issue in the House of Commons as recently as last week. The new agreement, which follows pressure from Mr Knight and other MPs, has so far been adopted by Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It will end the practice of labelling meat or dairy products ‘British’ simply because the food was processed in the UK.

Mr Knight says, “Much of the bacon on the shelves of supermarkets is from foreign reared pigs yet is falsely labelled as British. This misleads consumers and damages British farmers”.

The MP adds: “This is good news, not just for farmers but for consumers too who will, for the first time, know where their meat is sourced from”.

Mr Knight urged all supermarket retailers to adopt this new scheme, “Unless the voluntary scheme is universally adopted by food retailers I will keep up pressure for the introduction of regulations making ‘honesty in labelling’ compulsory”, he said.

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight has called on the Government to take action on food labelling, during a debate on Parliamentary business in the House of Commons. He pointed out that currently meat which is from a foreign animal but processed in Britain can be labelled as ‘British’.

Mr Knight said “Much of the bacon on the shelves of supermarkets is from foreign reared pigs yet is falsely labelled as British. This misleads consumers and damages British farmers”.

In the House of Commons, to cheers from MPs of all parties, Mr Knight argued that we should “Seek to achieve more honesty in food labelling”.

In response to Mr Knight’s comments the leader of the House of Commons Sir George Young said, “I entirely agree. It should be made absolutely clear which food is genuinely produced in the UK and which is processed in the UK having been reared somewhere else”. He went on to promise to pursue the matter with DEFRA ministers and investigate what action the Government can take.

Mr Knight said “I am delighted that the Government agrees that current food labelling practices which mislead consumers are in need of reform”.

He added “If targeted action is taken to sort out this labelling anomaly it would represent a big boost to British farmers. They are currently being forced to compete with an inferior product, masquerading as British, yet often packed with water and sourced from foreign animals kept to significantly lower standards”.

Mr Knight said he intended to “keep the pressure up” on Ministers to introduce labelling reforms.