The Red Tractor logo and other food supply chain quality labelling schemes could be scrapped as a result of a consultation opened by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
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The AHDB, which was set up in April to serve the meat, horticulture, dairy, potato and cereals sectors, has asked for industry views on whether they should create a single quality label to avoid confusing consumers.
“One of the reasons for setting up the organisation was to try and govern cost efficiencies across a number of functions and one of the areas identified was that of quality schemes,” Guy Attenborough, Interim Head of Communications told just-food.
“What we’re saying is let’s go out and see what the industry feels about it and that means through the whole chain from the consumer right back to the farmer. There is a scheme already in existence, which is the Red Tractor logo but what we’re asking is should we spend money on a cross sector scheme, and if we do, should we create a new scheme or should we adopt the Red Tractor one.”
Red Tractor, managed by Assured Food Standards, has welcomed the consultation as a way of highlighting the credentials of the label.
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By GlobalData“There are so many different initiatives and labels, so in a way it is a complete waste of everyone’s energy to put different logos on products and obviously for consumers it is much easier from their point of view to look out for just one logo,” a spokesperson for Assured Food Standards told just-food.
“What we need is to allow the consumers to get a better understanding of what the Red Tractor logo stands for and we need more communication work to get the recognition but we have limited resources at the moment and we need extra funds so this is a very positive way that we can expand the presence that we have already got.”
The consultation will run for six weeks to 31 October and an analysis will take place in November.
