Stores urged to sell more food from UK farms as burger sales plummet

Figures published today by the National Farmers Union (NFU) show that 86 per cent of shoppers want to buy more traceable food produced on British farms. A further 78 per cent agree or strongly agree supermarkets should sell more food from British farms.

This comes after it emerged sales of frozen burgers and frozen ready meals are down by 43 per cent and 13 per cent respectively since the scandal began.

NFU president Peter Kendall will tell today’s union conference in Birmingham that he believes shorter and more traceable supply chains would help to alleviate the problems of recent weeks.

Meanwhile, two new polls suggest a significant number of UK consumers would be happy to eat safe and properly labelled horsemeat.

A survey of almost 14,000 MoneySavingExpert.com users who are meat-eaters found 51 per cent would buy horsemeat as long as they knew it was bred for eating and was therefore safe. A separate survey by Ipsos Mori found consumers aged 45 to 54 are the most likely to be willing horsemeat consumers (38 per cent), while those aged 16 to 24 are the least likely (21 per cent).