Introduction.
Cheating British supermarkets have been warned that they face a strong consumer backlash, or even risk losing a section of their customer base, if that pass off imported Norwegian salmon as Scottish. This warning comes from Mike Lloyd, marketing director of the new salmon representative and marketing organisation in Scotland, Scottish Quality Salmon.
Mike Lloyd said that many of British supermarkets are taking advantage of Scottish salmon's excellent world-wide reputation to sell imported salmon without stating where it is from. He has arrived at this conclusion because two thirds of people surveyed in a MORI poll claimed to have bought Scottish salmon, but only 40% could remember seeing a country of origin label.
Mr Lloyd claims that trusting customers have been hoodwinked into thinking that they are getting the best quality salmon when they are not. He said that customers should not be fooled by statements such as "Product of the UK" on pre-packed salmon. Instead he advises consumers to be cautious when buying salmon and to look for the Tartan Quality Mark, which is endorsed by SQS.
This cautionary advice from Mike Lloyd of the SQS raises a number of key questions.
1. Are British supermarkets misleading their customers?
The answer to this question is no. It is total nonsense to suggest that British consumers are being hoodwinked into buying imported salmon, when they think that they are actually buying Scottish. A survey of the packaging and labelling of pre-packed sa lmon, currently available at all the major British multiple retailers, shows that Scottish salmon is always labelled as such and therefore consumers are not being misled.
There is no doubt that labelling can be confusing, so that any consumer, who takes the time to read all the small print on some of the packaging, would be unclear as to from where the salmon actually originates. Equally, none of the labelling implies that the salmon is Scottish, when it is not. As Mr Lloyd rightly points out, "Product of the UK" refers only to the fact that the salmon has been processed in the UK, not that it was reared in the UK. This loophole in EU labelling legislation is however, not just a problem for the SQS, but one which affects the wider agricultural sector, where it is a much greater issue. Mr Lloyds' comments come at a time when this labelling loophole is the subject of national discussion and the probability is that the UK Government will soon insist that all labels must include a clear statement of origin.
Yet, until this issue is resolved, Mr Lloyds suggestion that the inclusion of the phrase "Product of the UK" on a pre-pack may indicate that the salmon is not Scottish, but imported, is rather undermined by the fact that the packaging on Safeway TQM Scottish salmon fillet actually states "Produced in the UK". The full findings of this survey are as follows:
Table: Survey of salmon pre-packs available from British supermarkets.
Of the15 pre-packs surveyed from eight store groups, only three contained the wording "Produced in the UK". One of these packs is fully labelled as Scottish and also carries a TQM sticker. The origin of the other two is unclear, but there is no suggestion that the salmon is Scottish. The majority of pre-packs are printed with the different statement "Packed in the UK". This simply means that the salmon is packed in the UK and as such carries no inference at all to its country of origin.
It should be stressed that in each case the wording "Produced in the UK" is so small and often buried amongst other wording that it can hardly be said to be misleading to the consumer.
The multiples have responded in an article in the Grocer magazine, by saying that they have tight controls in place to prevent the occurrence of inaccurate labelling.