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Video length: 2 min
The question was once again raised by the agricultural crisis: the vagueness surrounding the labels on products. A France label or a flag on packaging is not enough to guarantee the origin of a product. It is even more difficult in the ultra-processed products category.
On French plates, ultra-processed dishes represent a third of the diet. Ham macaroni, bacon ravioli, hake with vegetables, what they have in common: a large gray area on the origin of their ingredients. On the label for example, no details on the provenance milk, ham or fish, and it’s perfectly legal. If manufacturers must indicate the origin of the meat for raw products, it is optional for processed products. A beef carpaccio which mainly contains meat and olive oil therefore falls under the category of processed products and escapes this obligation.
According to Olivier Andrault, project manager at UFC-Que Choisir, the term “EU and Non-EU origin” is deliberately vague and very practical for manufacturers. “The manufacturer can maintain total opacity regarding the origin of its products and hide from the consumer origins which are not necessarily sales.“, he explains. In 2017, the government launched an experiment which required manufacturers to indicate the origin of meat and milk in processed dishes.
