Food Standards

If the petition doesn't work then we'll just have to vote with our purses. I will try not to buy it but to remove the country of origin is downright sneaky.

We've been so used to having our food labelled with country of origin and if it is organic, or fairly traded, not to mention what its ingredients are, that it is hard to imagine that that could be removed. At least at the moment we can, if we want to, avoid the Tesco sandwiches and ready meals which contain chicken from Thailand, but for how much longer?

Nearly 1 million have now signed the petition and in theory a debate in parliament is meant to take place, but there are a great many exclusions so it may well get ignored. However the bill has to go to the House of Lords and they have already shown concern.

USDA meat has been sold in the UK for years - there are importers that specialise. As I understand things, it has to meet EU standards, so presumably they're reared separately for the export market.

I've never knowingly bought it as it's expensive but have had it in certain restaurants in the past.

I've signed the petition, for all the good it will do. I'm disgusted (though not too surprised) at this Government's broken promise that food standards will not be compromised.

Surely if the US wants us to abolish our country of origin labels that indicates they plan to offload some total tat on our doorstep. No thanks!

Just because American produce may be in the shops, it doesn't mean you have to chose to buy it

The US wants removal of country of origin from food labels as part of a trade deal. In which case your ability to chose completely disappears.

Of course, you could buy locally sourced foodstuffs 'if' you are lucky enough to have shops that cater for people who want to do that, but most people buying from supermarkets won't have that choice. And I suspect that most of the UK population does buy everything from supermarkets.

If you buy processed meat products (pies, ready meals etc) you certainly won't have a clue of the origin of the meat used.

It's probably here already anyway.

It isn't because we still observe EU food standards for imported foodstuffs. That will include any food products we currently import from the US.

??

I think you'll find there's not much demand for halal pork!

Just because American produce may be in the shops, it doesn't mean you have to chose to buy it. It's probably here already anyway. We still trade with the USA, just without a Free Trade reciprocal deal. Products are labelled with their place of origin.

This is one reason why I buy very little meat because I won't eat factory farmed animals and halal meat especially, and that is unlabelled as such although it has been asked for in Parliament on many occasions. I tend to buy free range British pork, which I know won't be slaughtered using that method. I save my anger for the cruelty to animals which happens in this county.

One of the most outrageous things I think that we won’t even have the choice of avoiding buying food from sources we would rather not buy.

The labelling of meat will not contain the country of origin.

The overall quality of food in general no matter what it is has dropped enormously. It's certainly nowhere near the quality of what once was. You were guaranteed that there were no additives or any other nasties included.
Now with supply and demand you wouldn't know what it was you were eating.

I'm all for keeping local farmers going so that's where I'll be getting meat from, not some unlabelled product that's going to cause illness.

Bumping this one, as I feel that it is very important. I really don't want to have food with no label to say where it is from, nor food full of hormones or washed in chlorine. The American negotiators are pretty tough, by all accounts, so beware!

Jamie Oliver is very concerned about this new legislation. See:
www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/

Apparently 40 Tory MPs did rebel and try to amend the legislation, so there are some with a conscience, the rest just do as they are told.

Expect much more of this!.

What is so irritating is the fact that they swore blind that it would not happen. They are hoping that they can slip it under the radar. They are just incredibly untrustworthy

Signed. I emailed my MP about food standards a while ago, and although he is a Tory he did reply that he was concerned that any trade deals after Brexit should protect our farmers and food standards (but will he vote to ensure that ?).

It's funny how this is being done while we are all taken up with coronavirus, not to mention the Dominic Cummings affair, isn't it? Cynical, moi?

I've signed the petition, but I know my MP won't do anything.