Red Tractor logo on ready meals in bid to restore confidence

The distinctive red logo, introduced 14 years ago, is only carried on food products that reach certain standards of animal welfare and can be traced back to British farms.

The kitemark has never appeared on ready meals or convenience foods before because their ingredients list was deemed too complicated.

But now the Red Tractor have introduced a new logo which highlights that 100 per cent of the meat used in ready meals and pies meets its standards.

The move follows the plummeting consumer confidence in chilled foods after horsemeat DNA was found in burgers and a range of ready meals found on supermarket shelves.

Britons binned 18 million ready meals in the aftermath of the scandal and sales have still not bounced back a year on.

David Clarke, chief executive of Red Tractor, said concern about the contamination of products had contributed to the drive to develop the new stamp.

He said: “The new ‘Made With’ logo has been in development for some time and although it isn’t a direct reaction to horsemeat, the events that unfolded in 2013 certainly made us look at it even more seriously.”

Despite falls in sales, the chilled ready meal market is still big business, with the UK spending £2.5bn on the convenience food each year, according to research by consumer experts Kantar Worldpanel.

Retail giant Asda will launch the logo on its chilled beef ready meals later this month and there are plans to roll it out to other products over the rest of the year.

Ade McKeon, Asda brand director, said: “We’re proud to have worked with Red Tractor on a project of this kind.

“Our customers tell us that it’s important for them to know exactly where their food comes from, so we’re delighted that from February 2014 we will be the first retailer to have the Red Tractor stamp of approval on all our chilled beef ready meals.”

Research carried out by Red Tractor suggests that more than half of shoppers are more likely to buy products like ready meals and pies if they featured the Red Tractor logo.