FARMERS have hit out at a supermarket chain for selling packs of processed meat claiming to be produced in Scotland when the animals were actually reared in Europe or South America.
The National Farmers Union Scotland said the product, stocked by Aldi, was misleading customers and could be damaging to the Scottish meat industry.
The packs of beef and turkey bear the Saltire flag, the thistle emblem, the words "produced in Scotland" and the claim the product was "made in the Scottish Borders".
However, small print on the rear of the packs shows the beef and turkey comes from animals reared in Europe or South America.
Wendy Fleming, NFU Scotland Food Chain Relationships Manager, said consumers would be in for a shock if they bought the packs assuming they were from locally reared animals.
She said: "NFU Scotland is hugely disappointed to have received reports of some cooked products on Aldi's shelves taking advantage of iconic Scottish branding to mislead consumers into believing products are of Scottish origin when in fact they originate from the EU and South America.
"Scottish consumers are likely to recognise and support the Saltire flag and the thistle emblem and be happy to read that something is 'produced in Scotland'."
An Aldi spokesman said: "We felt it appropriate to include the Scottish flag as the two meats in question come through the Scottish supply chain and are processed for us in Kirkconnel. We never intended to mislead customers and apologise if this has caused confusion."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article