The cheddar cheese from Latvia

Farming Today’s series on the problems of misleading food labelling continued today with a look at cheese, and in particular cheddar. It seems that more cheddar now comes into the UK from Latvia than is produced in the Cheddar Gorge itself. Other so-called cheddar comes from Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, as well as other EU countries.

Just as with many other foods, there is no obligation to state on the packaging where cheddar cheese comes from. So the cheese, particularly at the lower end of the market, is imported in big blocks and then cut up and put in packs that say “packaged in the UK” or “packed in the UK”.

Lyndon Edwards of the Royal Association of British Farmers, said: “If it says “packaged in the UK” it has almost certainly not been produced in Britain. Some customers want to buy the cheapest product they can. wherever it comes from, and I’ve got no problem with that. But there are customers who would prefer to pay a little bit more for a quality British product. The problem at the moment is that they’re not able to identify which IS the quality British product.”

He pointed out that Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s are now labelling the cheese they sell with country of origin but not, it appears, the other supermarkets.

Even the fresh milk you buy may be imported these days, though it’s often hard to tell by looking at the container. No wonder the number of dairy farmers in the UK has halved in the past decade. Food labelling is a prime source of Zebu. What is the problem with simply stating on labels where food comes from?

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