Tesco in trouble over pork mislabelling

Tesco has become embroiled in another mislabelling scandal after the retailer was found selling Dutch pork labelled as British.

The revelation comes a year after the company was forced to issue apologies for selling horse meat labelled as beef and promised to be vigilant about the provenance of its food.

Tests on two pork chops, by the British Pig Executive using isotope technology, found that the meat was probably Dutch, with just a 1 per cent chance of being British – as the label claimed. The Dutch connection with the pork was uncovered by a BBC investigation.

Tesco said it was “extremely disappointed”. A spokeswoman said: “When we specify that we want British pork, we expect to be supplied with British pork. We have spoken with our supplier to make clear that this mistake is unacceptable.”

The meat was supplied by Cranswick, which said it was bought from the Wolverhampton-based supplier FA Gill. However, Gill disputed Cranswick’s statement and said all its meat came from the UK.

A spokesman said: “FA Gill can categorically deny that the pork came from their supply as we do not deal with Dutch meat. We correctly label the products we sell to our customers and we have the documentation to prove this.”

Tesco said it was too early to say whether it would end its relationship with either supplier.

The UK’s biggest supermarket has been trying to win over customers by giving them more information about its supply chain. It was one of the worst hit retailers during the horse-meat scandal and took out full page apologies in newspapers.

The Dutch connection with the pork was uncovered by a BBC investigation using isotope technology which can trace where animals were raised due to the water they drank and matched with a database of DNA.Tesco said it is trialling the technology and has instigated widescale DNA testing following the horse-meat fallout.