Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June to Question 189224 on Dairy Products, who is conducting the research on food information to consumers; who will be consulted as part of the research; what other issues are part of the research and what are the research objectives; for what reason the research was commissioned; and when she expects the research be (a) completed and (b) published.

Following a competitive tender process, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) are conducting the research on behalf of Defra, with a consortium of academics and partner agencies.

Defra has set up a steering group made up of representatives from within Defra and other relevant Government departments. Consumers and business will be inputting into this research, along with existing literature.

The research will build on previous research (Defra (2014), Baseline evaluation of EU Food Information to Consumers - FA0132, Science Search (defra.gov.uk) and Defra (2019), Follow Up Study of EU Food Information to Consumers - FA0169, Science Search (defra.gov.uk)) and investigate to what extent the objectives of the Food Information to Consumers regulations have been achieved, and how key indicators have changed from the baseline and follow up studies. The research will also explore the impacts of recent legislative, societal, and technological changes to food labelling on consumers and industry.

The research is due to be completed by the end of March 2024 and published summer 2024.