Defra continues to leave a void in consumer protection

Trust marks?. Credit: Canva / www.realbreadcampaign.org CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0

Published: Monday 11 May 2026

Replying to an email sent by Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young on 29 April 2026, on 8 May a Defra food information and labelling team leader wrote:

Thank you for your email regarding the ‘Criteria For The Use Of The Terms Fresh, Pure, Natural Etc. In Food Labelling’ guidance.

At present, Defra’s Food Information and Labelling team has limited capacity and is prioritising urgent Ministerial priorities, including supporting negotiations and implementation of the UK EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement, alongside urgent business as usual activity.

The UK EU SPS Agreement is intended to make agrifood trade with our largest market easier, reducing costs and unnecessary administrative burdens for British producers and retailers. As part of this agreement, the UK will dynamically align with relevant EU food labelling legislation. Delivering this work is currently the team’s main focus. That said, we continue to work on other food labelling issues that matter to consumers and businesses, including guidance and will provide further updates when progress allows.

We appreciate that this may not be the response you were hoping for but thank you for reaching out and we will ensure updates are shared on FPN guidance when they become available.

On 11 May 2026, the Real Bread Campaign coordinator replied:

Defra being too busy to prioritise reviewing the guidance, then either revising or replacing it, is a key reason we have spent more than a year urging ministers and your team to reinstate the existing version as an interim measure. While far from an ideal solution, it is a simple one that is better than continuing to leave a void in consumer protection by choosing not to do so.

Again: will Defra please reinstate the guidance as a temporary measure? Of not, please explain why.

It would also be useful to know what progress Defra has made regarding our proposals for updated and improved composition, labelling and marketing standards, please. I am aware that the issues are spread across remits of more than one team there.

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign since March 2009. In addition to lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws in the UK; he created and runs initiatives including: Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise, promoting therapeutic/social benefits of bread making; No Loaf Lost surplus reduction guidance; and Lessons in Loaf for schools. He’s the author of the Knead to Know…more microbakery handbook, Slow Dough: Real Bread recipe book and Bake Your Lawn grow-a-loaf guidebook; and edits True Loaf magazine.

From 2014-18, Chris also coordinated Sustain's London Food Link network, which included editing The Jellied Eel magazine and helping to launch and run the Urban Food Awards with the Mayor of London’s office. Chris has pulled on his judge’s wig for BOOM Awards, The Cateys, The Great Taste Awards, The Scottish Bread Championship and The World Bread Awards. In 2017, The School of Artisan Food honoured Chris with its first Fellowship, and in 2025 he was named joint Person of The Year by Slow Food in The UK.

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