Horsemeat

Perhaps consumers should start to ask why supermarkets can sell processed meat products so cheaply.

The European Commission took a decision in April 2012 to ban desinewed meat, which was a key ingredient in value food items such as pies, lasagne, burgers and other processed beef products.

This lead food producers to go outside the UK to source supplies of cheap mince to enable the supermarkets to continue selling manufactured beef products at ridiculously low prices.

When producers go abroad, the chain gets longer and documentation is relied alone for authenticity.

Desinewed Meat & Pink Slime

Desinewed meat (DSM) was introduced in the UK in the 1990s as a replacement for mechanically recovered meat (MRM). Sometimes called “pink slime”, MRM was formed by removing residual meat from animal bones using high pressure water.

Pink Slime is lean finely textured beef made from fatty beef carcass off-cuts, then heated and spun in a centrifuge to remove most of the fat, and then exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.

It had been linked to the spread of the human form of mad cow disease and the UK government took steps to restrict it from the food chain.

DSM was developed as a higher quality form of recovered meat. It was produced using low pressure, retained some structure and was regarded as a meat ingredient on value products.

But in April last year, the European Commission told the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that it no longer regarded DSM as a form of meat and it would have to reclassify it as MRM, which meant it could no longer be used in low-cost meat items.

Manufacturers who were using it for value products had to leave the UK food chain and go and look at overseas suppliers at a price similar to DSM and this is where I think things potentially started to go wrong.

Not Just Beef Products

The possibility has been raised that lamb products might need testing to reassure consumers that horse had not been used as an ingredient. Desinewed lamb was used quite extensively in some products, and since the ban suppliers would also have needed to look outside the UK for a replacement.

DSM was being produced in quite significant quantities, especially for the kebab industry, so the only sure way is to look into the issue and test.

Food Labelling

While the on-going incidents of horsemeat in the food chain appear to be acts of criminality, the recent scandal highlights that it is vitally important to have adequate food labelling, particularly with respect to meat in processed food products. Mandatory country of origin labelling on all meat products has been a long-standing campaign, and it is clear to us that more stringent country of origin labelling would foster improved traceability systems, making it harder for unlabelled meat to enter the food chain.

A poll conducted by the Countryside Alliance Foundation (TCAF) in May 2011, showed that 90 per cent of people supported the proposal that a British flag should only be given to meat products where the animal has been born, reared and slaughtered in Britain.

Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North stated “the lack of mandatory country of origin food labelling continues to place British farmers at a disadvantage when much of their competition comes from producers in countries, which are not subject to such robust animal welfare legislation and standards and the associated costs.”

While the European Parliament voted in July 2011 to extend mandatory country of origin labelling to fresh meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry, mandatory country of origin labelling still does not include foods where meat is an ingredient, such as sausages and ready meals. So sausages made in Britain using Danish pork can still be legitimately be labelled as ‘British’. This is unacceptable, both for British producers, who produce meat to some of the highest standards and consumers, who should be able to make an informed choice.

Supermarkets constant drive for perfection in fresh produce, which has conditioned the consumer to only accept perfect looking fruit and vegetables, is finally going to change this year, due to the terrible summer weather farmers have endured.

Supermarkets have finally relaxed their rules to allow smaller fruit and vegetables onto their shelves after the dreadful summer weather devastated harvests of British crops.

Many farmers are reporting that their yields of seasonal staples such as brussels sprouts, peas, carrots and potatoes are 20%-40% down after the wettest summer in a century. Supermarkets are reducing their usual requirement for brussels sprouts to be 23-40mm in circumference as many vegetables are about 10% smaller than normal, according to the British Growers Association.

The poor growing conditions this summer have resulted in some sprouts having darker external leaves, referred to as ‘purpling’. This colour difference has no effect on flavour, but Sainsbury’s said it would be accepting sprouts with purpling this year.

The pea harvest, which ran three to four weeks late, was down by about 45%, cutting farmers’ revenues by £20m. Peas are now already being imported from Spain.

The potato harvest is down 5% or more. Tesco has reduced its size specification, whilst Sainsbury’s is trialling selling a ‘basic potato’ range with more cracks and imperfection.

The apple crop is also down by about 27% in the UK and 20% in Europe, making it the worst since 1997. There will be a shortage of English apples by January which will drive the prices up by about 17%.

Tesco said: “We are helping our growers and suppliers by stocking produce that covers different sizes, weights and sometimes shapes… we have no plans to change our pack weights, although the vegetables might be smaller.”

With our ever growing population and inevitable shortage of food, perhaps the consumer should be ‘reconditioned’ and become more accustomed to buying and eating more ‘imperfect’ fresh produce. We should all fully support our UK farmers and buy what’s produced, not just what the supermarkets think we should buy. Questions should be asked what happens to all the ‘non-standard size and shaped’ food currently!

Mr Paice admitted he did not know how much a pint of milk cost, telling the BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today his wife “buys most of it”.

Farmers say they will lose on average £50,000 a year because of a drop of nearly 4p a litre in the price they receive from milk processing companies.

Dairy farmers from across the UK are expected to stage a protest at Westminster today to voice concerns about the future of the industry. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has said it will support any action that is peaceful and legal and has called for an immediate reverse of the price cuts and the resignation of those involved.

Its vice-president has warned of a mass exodus from the dairy industry, adding that if that happened in three to four years “consumers will be paying a lot more for their milk”.

Some of the farmers are backing a campaign of direct action and have threatened to pour their milk down the drain.

The Farmers Weekly have started a campaign on their Facebook page of ‘Fair Price on the Shelf, Fair Price on the Farm’.

Some supermarkets sell non-organic milk for about 30p a pint, for larger bottle sizes. Single-pint bottles are offered at nearer 50p, with smaller shops often charging more. Milk delivered to the doorstep costs consumers about 65p a pint.

Farmers receive about 14p a pint! As usual the middlemen and the retailers are quite literally creaming off the top…

Hundreds of dairy farmers have gone out of business in recent years, and following recent price cuts by milk processors, the industry says it has had enough.

The NFU and the Tenant Farmers Association have called for all price cuts since 1 April to be reversed by 1 August.

Robert Wiseman, Britain’s biggest fresh milk company that was taken over by European dairy giant Muller in January, cut the price of a litre of milk by 2 pence in June and plans to cut it again by 1.7p in August.

Wiseman’s standard litre price would then be 24.73p. This is well below the cost of producing a litre of milk, farmers say. Other milk processors in the UK announced price cuts last week.

In the dairy industry, the processors set the price they pay farmers for their milk.

They say they have had no choice but to pay less for the product, because the price of cream on the commodities market has fallen sharply in the past 12 to 18 months.

Milk processing in effect involves skimming off cream to make milk more palatable for consumers. So the processors say if they are making less money selling cream, they have less money to pay for the milk.

According to the NFU, Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer farmers “good” contracts, whereas those offered by Asda and Morrisons are “not so good”. Supermarkets will often buy milk directly from farmers and also through third-party processors.

All the main supermarkets are selling milk at £0.52 per litre for 2.27 litres (4 pints) and £0.78 per litre for 1.13 litres (2 pints).

As usual, somewhere in the supply chain there are large profits being made at the expense of the UK dairy farmers. Will they only be happy when the dairy industry has been decimated and we’re only left with super dairies, or resulting in imported milk from Europe.

Under current European Union (EU) labelling regulations the country shown on a food label refers to the place the product was last processed, not where it was produced.

A labelling loophole allows grocery chains to mark products as “Produced in the UK” if the last significant change to it took place in Britain, even if the main ingredient comes from abroad.

So supermarkets for instance can sell sausages “made in Britain” using cheap Danish pork and legitimately label them as British sausages. They can legally label chicken sandwiches as “Produced in the UK”, even if the chicken has come from intensive poultry sheds in Thailand, because they have placed the chicken between bread.

Clear and transparent labelling on all meat products sold in the UK is essential so consumers can make informed choices and have confidence in the products they are buying. British farmers are subject to some of the highest animal welfare and production standards in the world, not just within the EU.

Using the Pig industry as an example:

More than 90 percent of UK pig meat is produced under the auspices of farm assurance schemes, e.g. Assured British Pigs. These schemes have defined written welfare standards which are audited by independent annual inspection and quarterly visits from a veterinary surgeon. 70 percent of pigs imported to the UK did not meet UK minimum legal standards.

The UK has a higher cost of production than most countries within the EU. Research shows the cost of production was 12 percent higher in UK than the EU, and more than 60 percent higher than in North and South America. World Trade Organisation rules are generally interpreted as precluding any trade restrictions on the basis of animal welfare standards, placing the EU and UK in particular at a significant competitive disadvantage!

Food retailers could play a major role in ensuring all food sold in the UK meets UK production standards. Because food is not labelled according to its welfare provenance, then concerned consumers are not able to exercise their choice and may, unwittingly, purchase products that do not meet their requirements.

Below are some major food retailers labelling cons:

ASDA - 6 mini pork pies - These Pork pies were produced in the UK, however the meat is from anywhere inside the EU.

Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’ - Spaghetti Bolognese - From the front of the label the consumer is led to believe the beef in the Bolognese is from Scotland… However the fine print on the back says that it is also produced using Italian, German and French pork.

Tesco ‘Finest’ - British Butter Roast Turkey - This butter roast turkey is marked as British and even has a British flag on the label… However turn over and you find out that the turkey in the product may have been slaughtered in the Republic of Ireland.

Tesco - Lincolnshire 6 Sausage Rolls - These sausages rolls are clearly marketed as coming from Lincolnshire… But the meat can come from anywhere inside the EU – that’s 27 possible countries.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) ‘not in my cuppa‘ campaign is spot on, but they seem to be missing one vital question, ‘why are mega dairy applications happening in the first place’?

Figures show the average cost of British milk in supermarkets is 25.94p per litre. The average cost of milk production is 29.1p per litre, a gap of 3.16p.

According to figures from the Milk Development Council, the number of dairy farmers in England and Wales in December 2010 stood at 11,041, a decline of 461 on the year before. Since 2002 there has been a 58 per cent drop from 19,000!

The WSPA’s recent survey conducted by Ipsos MORI showed that, excluding price, freshness is the most important consideration for the majority (69 per cent) of adults who buy milk. However, over a fifth (22 per cent) put the cows’ welfare above this. When asked if they would ever buy milk produced from around 8,000 cows kept in large indoor sheds, 61 per cent said “never”.

The reason normal sized dairy farms are going out of business is because the price of milk paid to farmers is not sustainable. An NFU report shows that dairy farmers lose an average of over 3p per litre of milk they produce. About 11bn litres of milk are produced annually across the UK, resulting in farmers losing £330m.

As with most industries, the bigger the producer, the cheaper a product can be produced. The same sadly applies to the dairy industry.

Supermarkets are the main culprit for mega-dairies as they regularly sell milk as a loss-leader (below cost price) to entice consumers into shops, so they want to buy it as cheaply as possible. Perhaps we as consumers should demand higher prices, but can you see that happening?

UK supermarkets are raising prices higher than inflation, risking a government inquiry, investment bank UBS has warned. But are supermarkets paying porducers more, or just pocketing the profit?

Food inflation in the UK was at an annual rate of 4.6% in February, its highest level for 18 months, markedly higher than the Eurozone average of 1.8% and the US average of 1.5%, according to a new UBS report.

The sharp rise contributed to the overall UK inflation rate increase to 4% earlier this month, twice the Bank of England’s target.
The sharp rises in commodity prices over the past year would justify a 3-5% increase in processed food prices, but some supermarkets have raised prices by 6-6.5%.

UBS suggests that supermarkets may be increasing profit margins from food sales, which could trigger a competition inquiry.
Paul Donovan says: “Prices are rising in excess of justifiable cost increases.”

Retailers say poor weather and a weak pound has pushed up food import costs but UBS says the “scale” of inflation has made Britain the most vulnerable to political intervention.

The report also adds that only 20-25 per cent of the final processed food price reflects “commodity input”, with most of the cost consisting of packaging, labour, marketing and distribution.

British dairy farmers are facing a £330m deficit as the cost of producing milk far outweighs the price they are paid for it by the supermarkets.

A new report from the NFU shows that dairy farmers lose an average of over 3p for every litre of milk that they produce. According to the union’s report, about 11bn litres of milk are produced annually on dairy farms across the UK, meaning that farmers are looking at a £330m funding gap.

The gloomy figures will heighten fears that more dairy farmers will go out of business. The sector is already contracting at an alarming rate. According to new figures from the Milk Development Council, the number of dairy producers in England and Wales in December 2010 stood at 11,041, a decline of 461 on the year before. Farmers in Wales were particularly badly hit, with 103 dairy farms going out of business over 2010. As recently as 2002 there were 19,000 dairy producers in England and Wales (58% drop in 8 years!!).

The NFU report shows that the costs of feed and bedding have increased by 16.6% and 13.8% respectively over last year. The price of blended fertiliser rose by 50% between November 2009 and November 2010.

Mansel Raymond, the NFU’s dairy board chairman, said: “These stark figures reveal the very desperate situation on many dairy farms and won’t be a surprise to the many farmers out there who are trying to make a living.”

“The irony is that if dairy farmers had received their fair share of available market returns this year, we wouldn’t be faced with such a staggering gap between the price we’re paid for our milk and the cost of producing it.”

NFU figures show the average cost of milk production is currently 29.1p per litre, while the average British milk price is 25.94p per litre in supermarkets - a gap of 3.16p.

The British pig industry is on the verge of collapse. Again thanks to supermarkets!!

In 2008 20,000 people supported the Pigs Are Worth It! campaign and signed the petition. That petition was presented to 10 Downing Street and played a significant role in helping pig farmers campaign for supermarkets to pay them a fair price for pork - and ultimately save the British pig industry. Since 2008 pig farmers have invested in more efficient systems and they have enhanced their environmental sustainability to deliver very high welfare, quality assured pork to meet growing demand.

Today, just as in 2008, rocketing feed prices have pushed up the cost to farmers of producing pigs. Farmers are losing more than £21 on every pig they sell. In the weeks before Christmas, pig producers racked up losses of nearly £25 million.

The situation for producers today is worse than in 2008. Unlike three years ago, current feed prices look likely to remain sky high for the foreseeable future. Pig farmers are now facing major financial losses and many are in danger of going out of business. But at the same time supermarkets are still reporting record profits. We need those supermarkets and processors to remember the lessons of 2008 and pay pig producers a fair price - before it’s too late.

All we want is a fair price for pigs, because Pigs Are Still Worth It!

Please register your support for the Pigs Are Still Worth It! campaign by clicking here and signing the online petition.

Russia, the world’s third-largest wheat exporter, announced a ban on exports of grain for the rest of the year because of wildfires that started last month and continue to lay waste to farmland. The wheat embargo had an immediate impact on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the hub of wheat futures, and sent the price soaring on indexes across the world.

Wheat prices have fluctuated significantly over the last 10 years. In 2000 the price was around £60 per tonne, it spiked in 2004 to £115 per tonne and feel back to around £60. In 2007 it rocketed to nearly £200 per tonne and then dipped to around the £100 per tonne. The Russian embargo has created another spike to £150 per tonne.

These price rises are obviously great news for UK farmers if they are able to take advantage. The overall price fluctuations however, make for very difficult business planning from year to year. These are the ups and downs of being tied to global commodity prices.

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that Russia will produce 25%-30% less wheat this year than in 2009. But does this mean that the price of bread has to go up?

If a loaf of bread costs £1, probably 10p-15p of that is actually wheat. The majority of the cost goes into packaging, the marketing and the distribution costs. The biggest cost is the profit margin the supermarkets make. As you can imagine, when the supermarkets put their prices up under the auspices of raw material rises, these prices never go back down when the raw material does.

In 2007, the supermarkets hiked up the price of a loaf when wheat went up to £200 a tonne. Funnily enough, the price of bread never came down in 2008 when the wheat price fell back to £100!

BBC - Russia ban on grain export begins

BBC - No export limit for Ukraine grain