Sainsbury’s admits labelling New Zealand lamb as British

Nikita Jane Garner, who runs a small farm in Co. Durham, tweeted: “Sainsbury’s you must do far better than this.

“Do you realise there are people, families and farms behind these products and that this misinformation has a real life impact for producers?”

The Food Standards Agency said concerned consumers should raise the issue with Defra as it is responsible for country of origin labelling,

Speaking to Farmers Guardian, a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “A tiny proportion of our New Zealand lamb joints were labelled incorrectly.

“We sent teams to our stores to put this right as soon as this was identified and we are apologising to customers for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”

It is understood the mislabelled product accounted for less than 0.05 per cent of Sainsbury’s lamb joints.

The retailer added it remained committed to sourcing British as much as it possibly can, with their Easter lamb range ‘no exception’.

“We have worked hard with our farmers to source almost a thousand more tonnes of best in season British lamb this year,” the spokesperson added.