CTSI supports Real Bread Campaign’s food labelling call

Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has added its support to the Real Bread Campaign’s call on the Government to update and improve standards and guidance on food labelling and marketing.

Getting fresh with food facts

In late 2024, the Real Bread Campaign learned that Defra had ‘archived’ ‘Criteria for the use of the terms fresh, pure, natural etc. in food labelling’, governmental guidance to commonly-used food marketing terms, without consultation or any plan to replace it. 

Following correspondence between the Campaign and Defra, Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain (the food and farming charity that runs the Campaign) wrote to Daniel Zeichner, Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs in February 2025. Amongst the letter’s proposals was reinstating the guidance temporarily as a no-cost, simple first step, to avoid leaving a vacuum of confusion. The Campaign followed up the letter in May 2025.

Trust

CTSI Head of Policy & Campaigns, Jessica Merryfield, said: ‘We know this guidance was valued by both Trading Standards professionals and businesses alike, giving clarity and ensuring consistency. This, in turn, gave confidence to consumers, who could trust the terms when they saw them. CTSI support the call for the updating and re-issuing of this guidance, for the benefit of all.’ 

Real Bread Campaign coordinator, Chris Young, said: ‘With many people’s budgets getting tighter, it’s increasingly important that everyone can trust we’re getting what companies promise we’re paying for. Clear legislation and official guidance also help to create a level playing field that is beneficial to businesses of all types and sizes.’

Following temporary reinstatement of the guidance, both organisations propose that the Government runs a public consultation on updating and improving standards and guidance. The Real Bread Campaign invites organisations and other interested parties to join its call.

Background

While consumer protection laws demand that information and marketing must be truthful and must not mislead, only a very limited number of food descriptors are specifically regulated. For example, while ‘wholemeal’ is defined and its use regulated, ‘whole grain’, ‘freshly baked’, ‘sourdough’ and ‘artisan’ aren’t. This leaves the accuracy and honesty of many terms and claims open to individual interpretation, which can vary greatly, leading to confusion amongst producers and shoppers, and creating unnecessary burden on consumer protection officers.

‘Criteria for the use of the terms fresh, pure, natural etc. in food labelling’ was published in 2008 by the Food Standards Agency following consultation involving more than 1200 organisations. It covers the terms: fresh, natural, pure, traditional, original, authentic, real, genuine, home made, farmhouse, farmhouse pâté, hand-made, premium, finest, quality and best. 

The guidance was instrumental in the 2018 trading standards / Advertising Standards Authority case that resulted in Pret a Manger removing the word ‘natural’ from its marketing, on account of selling sandwiches assembled using ultra-processed industrial dough products, manufactured using additives.

The document also includes guidance against using ‘freshly baked in store today’ type claims about supermarket ‘in-store bakery’ products that are prefabricated elsewhere and merely re-baked at a later date to brown and crisp the crust. The Campaign continues to pursue trading standards complaints about companies using freshness claims in ways it believes do not accurately reflect the truth of when, where and how products were manufactured.

Since 2009, the Real Bread Campaign has been lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards.