§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to promote food assurance schemes in the UK. [128048]
§ Mr. BradshawThe Department has made clear its support for assurance schemes as part of the Government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.
Assurance schemes are a priority for grant aid under the new Agriculture Development Scheme, launched last year to take forward important elements of the strategy. Assured Food Standards has received grant aid under the scheme for projects to create an independent, authoritative body for food assurance; review assurance standards and their delivery; and develop a marketing and communications strategy.
Some assurance schemes may also be eligible for help under the Rural Enterprise Scheme, which forms part of the England Rural Development Programme. We have, for instance, helped LEAF (Linking the Environment and Farming) develop their premium assurance scheme for horticultural produce.
Ultimately, promotion of the individual schemes is a matter for the private sector bodies that own and administer them.
§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the comprehensibility of existing food assurance schemes for consumers in the UK. [128049]
§ Mr. BradshawThe Department has not itself undertaken any work to assess the comprehensibility of existing food assurance schemes for consumers in UK. However, various other organisations have considered consumers' understanding of assurance schemes. These include an independent review of assurance schemes (June 2002) carried out for the Food Standards Agency and the National Consumer Council's report on consumers' views on labelling (Bamboozled, baffled and bombarded, February 2003), commissioned by the Food Standards Agency.