A man has appeared in court charged with selling mislabelled meat which falsely advertised the produce as British.
Simon Drust, a butcher and owner of The Meat Shack in Studley, Warwickshire, placed adverts in the Redditch Standard and on Facebook.
It said: "Buy British-All Beef pork, Lamb and Chicken." However, the newspaper reported that the meat was not actually British.
Mr Drust appeared in Warwick Magistrates Court on December 19. He faces a number of charges relating to fraud and misleading customers.
The charges included the sale of non-British meat under banners stating "Best British Beef, Best British Pork, Best British Chicken and Poultry and Best British Lamb".
Other charges include misleading customers about the country of origin of meat sold in the shop, the breed from which beef was derived, whether pork was free range, and whether meats and poultry were fresh or had been frozen.
Mr Drust is now set to appear at Warwick Crown Court on January 22.
It follows news of the UK preparing to develop its own 'gold-standard metric' for British food and farming quality.
The food labelling system, announced by Defra Secretary Michael Gove, will showcase Britain's animal welfare standards coupled with a detailed country of origin label, and could be rolled out across supermarkets after Brexit.
He explained future profits in food production lie in "distinctive quality produce".
