London, Jan 30 - British government ministers have told supermarkets to stop selling processed food containing cheaper foreign meat with labels suggesting it was British, The Independent reported in its Friday edition.
Environment Minister Hilary Benn said in an interview with the newspaper that retailers were undermining the government's drive to persuade shoppers to buy British and putting at risk the government's policy on food security and animal welfare.
Benn said Britain was lobbying for new European laws that would outlaw a labelling loophole which allows grocery chains to mark products as being "produced in the UK" if the last significant change to it took place in Britain, even if the main ingredient came from abroad.
Benn said Britain was lobbying for new European laws which would outlaw a practice he described as "hard to justify".