HC Deb 26 July 1999 vol 336 cc140-1W
Dan Norris

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to minimise defensive labelling by food producers in respect of nut content. [92491]

Mr. Rooker

We are urging industry to take action on so-called defensive labelling, such as "may contain nuts", so that it is restricted to cases where it is really necessary

and not used as an alternative to improving production procedures. The UK Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have both recently produced guidance notes for their members on this. Discussions with industry are continuing.