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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to combat misleading labelling of food.

Food labelling rules are harmonised in the EU and require that food information shall not be misleading. This Government has pressed for better information for consumers during negotiations relating to food labelling in Europe.

Food businesses are ultimately responsible for ensuring their products' safety and accurate labelling. However, Government departments and agencies back this up with more than 80,000 risk-based checks per year.In addition, Defra develops validated testing methods under its Food Authenticity Programme to check whether a product has been mislabelled or contaminated. These are then used by Public Analysts and local authorities to support food law enforcement.