Misleading label on seafood products found in UK hypermarkets
Research has shown that big hypermarkets like Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and The Co-operative are supplying seafood products which are mislabeled. The seafood include farmed fish, haddock, tinned tuna and cod.
A testimony made by ClientEarth, a leading environmental law organization stated that 32 products out of 100 were unverified and claims such as ‘responsible farmed’; ‘sustainably sourced’; ‘protect the marine environment’ and ‘protects the marine environment’ were misleading.
However, the purchasing power of consumers is rather hectic to halt overfishing. 88 percent of fish stock has been overfished in the EU only and retailers are actually aware that extensive concerns about this make consumer buy substitute products.
Nonetheless, it has been requested to all supermarkets to remove the products that have the misleading claims or to confirm them with proof that the fish products they are selling comes from sustainable environment. In case, such act has not been put into action, then complaints will be made to the Office of Fair Trading which is responsible for the consumer protection laws.
On the other hand, ClientEarth is making an appeal to set strict rules concerning fish labeling. Most supermarkets are actually taking immediate action in order to ensure that the fish they are selling are not over-fished and that marine environment has been respected accordingly.
Ref:
http://www.internationalsupermarketnews.com/index.php/?option=com_content&view=article&id=4032:major-retailers-found-to-place-misleading-labels-on-seafood&catid=1:latest-news
