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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of consumer confidence in the authenticity of British food.

George Eustice

Defra has not recently carried out its own assessment of consumer confidence in the authenticity of British food. However in 2013 consumer research carried out by both IGD and Mintel showed an increase in consumer trust in British food.

The IGD ShopperVista survey carried out in March 2013 found that shoppers are now nearly one and a half times more likely to buy British food than they were six years ago, with younger shoppers and families driving this growth. The Mintel report on Consumer Trust in Food, published in June 2013, found that the factor most encouraging consumer trust in food was the use of British ingredients (48%), with product origin on packaging also seen as a key factor (43%).

The Government is committed to clear and consistent labelling to help consumers make informed decisions about the food that they buy. On 13 December 2013, the European Commission adopted an Implementing Regulation setting out the detailed rules for mandatory country of origin labelling for fresh and frozen, unprocessed, pre-packed pork, poultry, sheep and goat meat. The rules come into force on 1 April 2015. Defra is reviewing with the UK food industry the current industry principles for meat labelled as ‘British’, with a view to re-launching and reinforcing them alongside the new European mandatory labelling requirement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to his statement of 3 April 2014, Official Report, columns 1034-7, on bovine TB, what the evidential basis is for the statement that about a third of badgers in TB hotspot areas are infected with TB.

George Eustice

The prevalence of M. bovis in badgers based on post-mortems and a subsequent analysis of the post-mortem protocol following the Randomised Badger Culling Trail (RBCT) showed prevalence of around 33%.

In the long-running study of badgers at Woodchester park TB prevalence in badgers has increased to over 30%.[1]

In a separate study in Gloucestershire between 35% and 53% of badgers tested positive to a TB test. [2]

[1]Delahay et al. Epidemiol. Infect. (2013), 141, 1445–1456. Long-term temporal trends and estimated transmission rates for Mycobacterium bovis infection in an undisturbed high-density badger (Meles meles) population

[2]Carter SP, et al. (2012) PLoS ONE 7(12): e49833. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049833 BCG Vaccination Reduces Risk of Tuberculosis Infection in Vaccinated Badgers and Unvaccinated Badger Cubs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will assess the desirability of separating responsibility for food safety policy and responsibility for food standards policy in England between the Food Standards Agency and his Department.

George Eustice

The Food Standards Authority is responsible for food safety and food hygiene across the UK, and for food law enforcement. Their strategic objective is safer food for the nation in order to protect the consumer.

Defra is responsible for non-safety related food compositional standards and labelling policy in England. Most of these standards are set under EU legislation considered by EU Agriculture Council and there are synergies with the equivalent standards set through the Common Agricultural Policy. The underlying reason for regulating in these areas is to set internationally recognised standards to facilitate trade and ensure a level playing field for food businesses, whilst protecting consumers against product misdescription. Food composition and standards policy is not generally related to food safety.