Is Food Traceability A Marketing Con?

Frank-the-Wool · Apr 2, 2023

We don't usually eat ready meals, but being flat out at the moment my wife had bought a Shepherds Pie from a well known local manufacturer. (I won't name it yet!)

We both commented that it was tainted, my bet was that it was Ram hogget, or worse something older. It was a poor eating experience and would put people off eating lamb if they thought it would taste like this.
I sent the company an email with the batch number and date of manufacture and asked where the meat had come from.
I received the standard reply, offering me a voucher for a free meal. I wrote back and declined.

I was told that all the meat either comes from Wales (company based in Kent) or New Zealand, depending on the season and was pasture fed and traceable back to farm!

I have written back again requesting they tell me whether it was Wales or NZ and what the name of the farm was!! That was on Friday so I will look forward to a reply next week.
I suggested that with the recent bad publicity about dodgy meat they need to use local traceable, pasture fed lamb!

This is a company that prides itself on its environmental credentials so it will be very interesting to see if I get to find out where this meat comes form.

Tarw Coch · Apr 2, 2023

I very much doubt it’s traceable back to farm………..but it appears they have repeated their claim that the meat is traceable back to farm so have started to dig a bigger hole to wriggle out of.
I’d be amazed if you get the answer you’re looking for, I expect a lot of excuses why they can’t give you that answer, data protection/confidentiality or some such like

Tamar · Apr 2, 2023

Well if it had a RT sticker on, then at least you could have traced it to the exact farm........... I've seen their advert, so it must be true!!

It will be interesting to see the firms reply.

yellowbelly · Apr 2, 2023

Frank-the-Wool said:
I was told that all the meat either comes from Wales (company based in Kent) or New Zealand, depending on the season and was pasture fed and traceable back to farm

I'm very interested to see if they can back up that claim.

The cynic in me says that's just empty marketing blurb (con) designed to dupe the man in the street who they're pretty sure won't have the inclination to follow it up.

Unfortunately for them, 'a man in a field' has asked the question.

We sold some cull tups not so long ago. I await a call from some meat processor with bated breath, just in case we are responsible for spoiling your tea.

Yale · Apr 2, 2023

It’s a joke, assurance schemes only assure our industry is bled dry by leeches and parasites!

DaveGrohl · Apr 2, 2023

Being able to trace the actual country of origin would be a start. I forecast they won‘t even be able to do that. Happy to be wrong, just sayin….

nick... · Apr 2, 2023

Maybe we should all be doing this.it woukd take ages for supermarkets to find out this infomation and reply.maybe they would realise the worthlessness of it all then,marketing ploy,absolutely
nick…

DaveGrohl · Apr 2, 2023

nick... said:
Maybe we should all be doing this.it woukd take ages for supermarkets to find out this infomation and reply.maybe they would realise the worthlessness of it all then,market ploy,absolutely
nick…

Ooh, I like that idea. We could start a thread where we report back. Maybe once we have a few results we could get a decent journalist involved and blow the lid on these claims.

yellowbelly · Apr 2, 2023

This thread is very timely in view of @Abi Kay 's latest 'exposé'.

Don't let them off the hook @Frank-the-Wool .
It would be good for the FW to do a follow up article on this.
It may seem like victimising a single firm, but hey, ho it was them that made the claim in the first place

Lowland1 · Apr 2, 2023

Any of our vegetables can be traced back to the field it came from. Given the info on the pack I can tell you the date of harvest and all the activities that went into growing the crop. I could probably tell you the name of the picker so if it wasn't up to your satisfaction you could tell them off.

Yale · Apr 2, 2023

Lowland1 said:
Any of our vegetables can be traced back to the field it came from. Given the info on the pack I can tell you the date of harvest and all the activities that went into growing the crop. I could probably tell you the name of the picker so if it wasn't up to your satisfaction you could tell them off.

Indeed but that system is also in place for your buyers to penalise you with shop returns, reduced to clear etc.

The system with meat is to make it believable to the consumer and vague enough that home grown meat can be easily substituted with cheap foreign meat produced to lower standards.

Allows processors to fly by the seat of their pants and commit food fraud.

Lowland1 · Apr 2, 2023

Yale said:
Indeed but that system is also in place for your buyers to penalise you with shop returns, reduced to clear etc.

The system with meat is to make it believable to the consumer and vague enough that home grown meat can be easily substituted with cheap foreign meat produced to lower standards.

Allows processors to fly by the seat of their pants and commit food fraud.

Not really when it leaves us we get paid for what we send. If it's accepted at depot then we get paid. To be perfectly honest it works well the problem with processed food is it's all chucked into a big pot with the original post it's more likely an issue with the flavouring rather than the meat. Not all meat is ever going to taste the same so they need to add something to make it uniform.

yellowbelly · Apr 2, 2023

Yale said:
The system with meat is to make it believable to the consumer and vague enough that home grown meat can be easily substituted with cheap foreign meat produced to lower standards.

Yep, they've already addressed that point with this statement..

Frank-the-Wool said:
I was told that all the meat either comes from Wales (company based in Kent) or New Zealand, depending on the season and was pasture fed and traceable back to farm!

"Depending on the season" is another phrase that gets my goat.

The UK has such a wide variation of landscapes and sheep production systems that we can supply on a year round basis yet they always use the 'out of season' card to justify imports.

Ffermer Bach · Apr 2, 2023

Lowland1 said:
Any of our vegetables can be traced back to the field it came from. Given the info on the pack I can tell you the date of harvest and all the activities that went into growing the crop. I could probably tell you the name of the picker so if it wasn't up to your satisfaction you could tell them off.

I just bought some red spuds in Lidl the other day, they were crap, lots of black bits in middle of the potatoes, just been out to the kitchen to see if I could find the packet, to complain, but it's in the bottom of the bin.

Lowland1 · Apr 2, 2023

Ffermer Bach said:
I just bought some red spuds in Lidl the other day, they were crap, lots of black bits in middle of the potatoes, just been out to the kitchen to see if I could find the packet, to complain, but it's in the bottom of the bin.

We got some similar last week we just cut the black out. Wouldn't buy them again.

Hilly · Apr 2, 2023

Lamb dose not have a season its available in uk year round .

unlacedgecko · Apr 2, 2023

This seems pertinent

Farmer's View: Time for us to take meat eating quality seriously

I’ve just returned from a fabulous trip to Australia, where it reached 42C before I flew back to -6°C in Scotland – the contrast between the…

www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk

JLLM · Apr 2, 2023

Ffermer Bach said:
I just bought some red spuds in Lidl the other day, they were crap, lots of black bits in middle of the potatoes, just been out to the kitchen to see if I could find the packet, to complain, but it's in the bottom of the bin.

Phew! I don't grow reds.

Tarw Coch · Apr 2, 2023

yellowbelly said:
I'm very interested to see if they can back up that claim.

The cynic in me says that's just empty marketing blurb (con) designed to dupe the man in the street who they're pretty sure won't have the inclination to follow it up.

Unfortunately for them, 'a man in a field' has asked the question.

We sold some cull tups not so long ago. I await a call from some meat processor with bated breath, just in case we are responsible for spoiling your tea.

So where did you say your farm was?
Wales or New Zealand

Tarw Coch · Apr 2, 2023

yellowbelly said:
This thread is very timely in view of @Abi Kay 's latest 'exposé'.

Don't let them off the hook @Frank-the-Wool .
It would be good for the FW to do a follow up article on this.
It may seem like victimising a single firm, but hey, ho it was them that made the claim in the first place

They didn’t just make the claim in the first place on their packaging, they repeated it in their further correspondence with Frank the wool,

Is Food Traceability A Marketing Con?

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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