IN Brief:
- NFU Scotland is calling for reforms it says improve transparency.
- The asks extend origin labelling beyond supermarkets into foodservice and wholesale.
- The paper also targets “mixed origin” claims, flag use, and enforcement reporting.
NFU Scotland has published a policy paper calling for “urgent reform” of UK food labelling rules, arguing that today’s framework is “confusing, inconsistent and unfair” for consumers and domestic producers, and that current practice allows origin cues to be diluted, buried, or implied without sufficient clarity.
The paper, titled Fair Labels, Fair Markets, is being pushed ahead of the union’s AGM and conference in Glasgow on 5–6 February, where NFU Scotland expects to put its proposals directly to policymakers. The organisation cites consumer sentiment as a central driver, saying its paper highlights that over 80% of consumers say origin matters to them, while fewer than half feel they can easily find that information when shopping.
Rather than focusing solely on retail packs, the union’s proposals push origin transparency into parts of the market that are typically less visible to consumers. Its first priority is to “label food clearly — wherever it’s sold,” explicitly urging origin labelling to extend beyond supermarkets into out-of-home channels and wholesale. That would place additional compliance expectations not only on manufacturers, but also on foodservice operators, caterers, and distributors, where menus, case labels, and procurement specifications do not always present origin with the same discipline as consumer packs.
The paper also targets processed meat labelling, arguing that processing should not erase origin, and that labels should still state where the meat comes from. In practice, this would tighten the space for ambiguous multi-step supply chains where raw material origin is decoupled from the point of final processing, and it would raise the bar for how ingredients are described in composite products.
In addition, NFU Scotland is calling for origin to be placed on the front of pack rather than “in the fine print,” and for an end to vague descriptors such as “mixed origin.” It also argues for tighter controls on the use of flags and provenance cues, warning against imported products “borrowing” Scottish branding or national flags in ways that may imply a connection that is not supported by the ingredient base.
The paper’s remaining asks widen into marketing practice and category definitions. It calls for an end to the use of “fake farms” — fictional farming narratives used to suggest provenance — and it argues for legal protection for meat product naming, intended to limit plant-based alternatives from using names or branding that imitate traditional meat products and mislead consumers.
Finally, the union is calling for tougher enforcement, with transparency on how rules are applied and reported, in an effort to reduce uneven practice and restore trust. NFU Scotland President Andrew Connon said: “Consumers in Scotland care deeply about where their food comes from, but they’re being let down by vague and misleading labels. At the same time, world-class food produced by Scottish farmers and crofters is too often undermined or co-mingled with imports that don’t meet our standards.” NFUS CEO John Davidson added: “These aren’t abstract principles, they affect everyday decisions in shops, restaurants and supply chains. The current system is messy and inconsistent. We’re calling for a reset that protects integrity and builds trust.”
If adopted, the proposals would touch pack design, product data management, menu compliance, and procurement documentation — with particular friction likely where multi-origin inputs are blended at scale, or where provenance cues have been used as a shorthand for quality without precise origin disclosure.
