Festive dinners will be from British meat for the first time ever, government says

Festive dinners across the UK can be sure the Christmas turkeys they tuck into are British this year for the first time ever, thanks to guaranteed labelling that shows where meat has come from, Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss announced.

Following a move to give consumers the power to make more informed choices about the food they eat, from this year Christmas turkeys must be labelled with the country where the animal was reared and slaughtered. This means that a turkey described as British will have been reared by a British farmer—and if it is marked with ‘origin: UK’, must have been born, reared and slaughtered in this country.

The UK government has pushed for better labelling in Europe, and in April this year the law changed to make country of origin labelling a must-have for fresh and frozen poultry meat, pork and lamb—beef already benefits from this labelling. This closed a loophole that had left some shoppers confused about where their meat came from—previous rules could lead them to presume they were buying British meat simply because it was processed in the UK.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: “This is the first Christmas when anyone sitting down to a traditional roast turkey dinner will be able to know if the meat on their plate is really British. We know people place a premium on buying British food because of its excellent quality and high welfare standards, which is why we pushed for this move in Europe.

“2016 will be the Year of Great British Food, celebrating the very best in food and drink across the country and overseas and inspiring people everywhere to make it their first choice—and I encourage people to start with what is on their Christmas dinner plate.”

Under the new rules, not only will shoppers across the UK know that the meat they buy is British, but EU citizens will also know when they have tasted British meat, helping to further the reputation of our delicious produce across the continent.

Protected turkeys

Diners looking to go one step further can buy turkeys labelled with a symbol that signifies they are specially safeguarded under the EU’s protected food name scheme—the same scheme that means products like feta cheese and parma ham have to come from a particular place or be made in a certain way. The UK’s 64 protected food names include Traditional Farmfresh Turkey, which is produced by a group of 50 family-run farms across the UK to supply fresh traditional turkeys.

Between them, the farmers produce more than 165,000 premium turkeys each year specifically for Christmas—they must be produced using a specific method, where the birds must be fully grown, dry plucked and hung to mature, giving a strong, gamey flavour and tender meat.

Ed Hurford, chairman of The Traditional Farmfresh Turkey Association, said: "When purchasing a Traditional Farmfresh Turkey consumers can be assured that their bird is a traditional British slow grown breed and has been grown in the traditional manner to our highest standards of welfare.

“The unique flavour, texture and moisture cannot be obtained in any other method of production. For this reason the Traditional Farmfresh Turkey has been awarded an EU Protected Food Name in the form of a Traditional Speciality Guarantee.

“This means that the family owned farms are independently audited annually and as each family farm only produces one Christmas batch a year we have the unique claim that each and every flock has been independently audited and is grown to our strict standards.”

The top-notch turkeys are one of 64 British products that have achieved EU protected status, with businesses awarded the status reporting a boost in sales, helping power local economies, increasing employment and driving up tourism.

The UK meat industry is booming, with global exports topping £1.66 billion in 2014, up 18.6% from 2010. This has been helped in part by improved access to the Chinese market, with the government continuing to work to open up new markets abroad—since 2010 the UK government has opened more than 600 new international markets. Meat exports to China rose by 11.6% to £217.8 million last year.