Glad we can repay the compliment to the over bearing useless lot that run itI know they read this forum and aren't very complementary about us!
From their website this is a clear breach of the advertising standards. They should desire enormously to prove they can match the words on their website.The following from one of the emails from RT:-
For you interest as an example, these are the steps in the assurance chain for beef, at each step the correct animal welfare and/or food hygiene certificates must be held as well as being a Red Tractor licensee or scheme member. Each step is accompanied by documentation invoices, receipts, certificates etc verifying the provenance.
• Red Tractor Farm Assurance member
• Transport
• Abattoir
• Cutting plant
• Catering butcher – (we don’t license individual butchers or deli counters as it would not be possible to confirm the eligibility of the meat)
• Processing uncooked i.e. mince
• Processing cooked i.e. cooked sliced meat
• Wholesaler
So it looks like the certification and document trail ends at the wholesaler. This is not what has been advertised.
The Red Tractor logo confirms that our independent assessors have checked food or drink meets our comprehensive standards, from farms to fork.
I am not after the farm (a 50 mile radius would do) but I am taking this further as what they are advertising is not true. I am giving RT one more chance to explain this discrepancy. I will keep you updated when I hear something.
The following from one of the emails from RT:-
For you interest as an example, these are the steps in the assurance chain for beef, at each step the correct animal welfare and/or food hygiene certificates must be held as well as being a Red Tractor licensee or scheme member. Each step is accompanied by documentation invoices, receipts, certificates etc verifying the provenance.
• Red Tractor Farm Assurance member
• Transport
• Abattoir
• Cutting plant
• Catering butcher – (we don’t license individual butchers or deli counters as it would not be possible to confirm the eligibility of the meat)
• Processing uncooked i.e. mince
• Processing cooked i.e. cooked sliced meat
• Wholesaler
So it looks like the certification and document trail ends at the wholesaler. This is not what has been advertised.
The Red Tractor logo confirms that our independent assessors have checked food or drink meets our comprehensive standards, from farms to fork.
I am not after the farm (a 50 mile radius would do) but I am taking this further as what they are advertising is not true. I am giving RT one more chance to explain this discrepancy. I will keep you updated when I hear something.
Why not make a formal written complaint to your local trading standards office was well as the Advertising Standards Authority?
RT are clearly misrepresenting matters in their Farm to Fork advertising. How about a RT farmer re-claiming all their payments on the basis that they have been obtained by RT's misleading and dishonest representations?
Update: I first contacted RT using the online “contact us” form on their website. There was no response. I phoned RT and the lady did not seem to know that there was a “contact us” form on their website!
After a bit of correspondence (about how RT work) I finally had the following:-
The traceability programme which we established and that we robustly enforce was designed for a team of auditors whose only role is to carry out inspections and traceability challenges. The systems that are in place do not provide the sort of information or access that a consumer would need to carry out an accurate product trace.
So there we have it. The traceability is for the RT team, not for consumers. I then asked if the phrase “from farm to fork” was legal and was met with a resounding silence.
Now I am willing to take this forward, but would like the views of the members here before I go any further, as I don’t want to mess up things for those of you who are RT members.
Thoughts?
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.
Not sure what the issue is here. Your post says that the auditors can trace the product back. Are you really expecting that every Joe public can have access to all the records through the supply chain!!! The reply from RT looks pretty clear to me.