origins

The latest Food Standards Agency (FSA) survey of food labelling has thrown up some interesting results. They were looking at the inclusion of 'country of origin' labels on convenience food to gauge public response. When prompted 52% of people said that they looked for the label. However when the question asked was more neutral 88% of people really couldn't give a shit.

Undeterred by this resounding rejection of the labelling the FSA is determined to press on. "This is about giving consumers what they want" said a senior executive "even if they couldn't give a toss about it. We will be proposing new legislation that compels producers to change their labels to allow consumers to make properly informed choices."

We spoke to a local tradesman who was purchasing convenience food at a supermarket. "There are only two things I want to know" he said. "What I'm buying and how much it costs. I really don't give a flying monkey's fuck which country the flour that made the bread came from. No, really I don't. I want a quick, tasty bite to eat that isn't too expensive. Can't these people get a real job to help get the country back on it's feet instead of fannying around changing things that don't need changing?"

We put this question to the FSA but so far they have refused to comment.