Waitrose is to rebrand its ‘Waitrose British’ brand, which uses meat sourced from New Zealand, after the retailer was accused of misleading customers.
The retailer has also said it will look at the practicalities of using more British lamb in its ready meals.
The range, which includes products such as Shepherd’s Pie and Lamb Hot Pot, has come under scrutiny from organisations like the National Farmers Union (NFU) because, despite using New Zealand lamb, the range is described and labelled as ‘Waitrose British’.
“The inclusion of the word ‘British’ in the brand name despite the meat being sourced from New Zealand is misleading for shoppers - and it’s frustrating for British farmers, especially those who produce lamb Waitrose could have sourced,” NFU president, Meurig Raymond, commented.
A statement from Waitrose said: “To ensure the provenance of the lamb in the meals is clearer – it has always been on back on pack – we have stickered all packs on the front. We are about to re-launch the range with the branding ‘Classic’, removing the large ‘British’ reference from the front of pack. This was only ever supposed to denote the origin of the recipe but we understand why confusion has arisen.
“In addition, we have challenged our supplier to explore the practicalities of using more British lamb in our ready meals. At the moment because of our policy of only buying from our dedicated supply chain and using the whole carcass, we do not have sufficient raw material available to make this change but, nevertheless, we are exploring this option.”
In response to the changes Waitrose has outlined Raymond added: “After extensive discussions between the retailer and the NFU, we’re now pleased to see some changes made: on pack-stickers to clarify sourcing put in place in the first instance, with the long-term plan of a full rebrand of the ‘British’ product range to avoid confusion on sourcing.
“During these discussions we urged the retailers to make the most of the high-quality British food products our farmers produce. This, we said, is the best way to celebrate British provenance with their customers. We’ll continue to push this message with Waitrose, and others in the supply chain, and relay any more progress on this back to the industry."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
