Prime Minister Launches First Ever Red Tractor Day
Friday 21 April 2006 is the nation's first official Red Tractor Day - launched this week with a call from the Prime Minister for shoppers to actively look out for the Red Tractor logo on UK-produced food.
As the trusted symbol for conscientiously produced food, the Red Tractor is found on a wide range of fresh foods in all major supermarkets, offering a single, independent 'kitemark' for farm-to-pack assurance.
Since its launch by the Prime Minister in 2000, the Red Tractor logo has gone from strength to strength, with standards spanning the length of the food chain. It now appears on £5 billion worth of food every year, which according to new research accounts for 60% of own-brand fresh foods sold in UK supermarkets.
The Prime Minister joins the Red Tractor Day celebrations by paying tribute to the alliance of food producers and retailers who have supported the independent Red Tractor scheme and helped to raise standards. He calls upon shoppers to look out for the mark and urges more UK food businesses to join the alliance.
According to Assured Food Standards, the independent not-for-profit organisation set up to manage the Red Tractor scheme, the British public wants more information about the provenance of their food and how it has been handled.
Chairman of Assured Food Standards, Colin Smith, says: "The Red Tractor delivers rigorous standards, traceability and independent inspections at every stage of production. It brings together the nation's leading producers, processors and retailers behind one credible, transparent scheme. Our message to shoppers today is - go out and look for the Red Tractor mark."
As well as having the support of the Prime Minister, Red Tractor Day is backed by the country's leading supermarkets who use the independent Red Tractor scheme to set standards for their suppliers. 78,000 UK farmers are members of the Red Tractor assurance scheme, which was originally devised by the NFU to identify assured British food.
Today, Red Tractor standards cover every critical stage of the food chain from farm to pack, spanning cultivation, animal welfare, food transport, processing and packing. Over 70,000 inspections are carried out every year by independent experts to ensure that Red Tractor standards are upheld every step of the way.
