The British Poultry Council welcomes the National Food Strategy’s latest report, praising the ambition to make sustainable British food accessible to all.
British poultry meat producers have long advocated for British food, and the quality it represents, to remain affordable and available for everyone. The National Food Strategy clearly outlines the risk posed to British standards, food producers and consumers by allowing the import of food produced to lower standards under trade deals.
British Poultry Council Chief Executive, Richard Griffiths, said:
“A National Food Strategy must prevent the creation of a two-tier food system, in which only the affluent can afford to eat British food grown to British standards. A food strategy can guarantee safe, nutritious, and affordable British food grown to British standards to satisfy the needs of everyone in this country. From a customer in a supermarket, a patient in hospital, a child in school, to someone who needs help from a charity or foodbank, everyone should have the privilege of eating British.
British farmers have worked incredibly hard to build a food system that enhances British food values and guarantees world class standards of production from farm to fork. It is vital that trade deals ensure that only food that meets our high British standards can enter the British market, or we risk diluting said standards and undercutting the producers who have worked so hard to get us here.
This Strategy’s recommendations present an opportunity to decide how proud we are of our home-grown food, the values that go into producing food people can trust, and how we want to trade with the rest of the world. Now is the time to bolster the heart of Britain’s food supply and secure it for generations to come.
We look forward to working with Government upon their response to the Strategy.”
