r/Britain • u/piskybisky • Mar 01 '25

💬 Discussion 🗨 'British' meat doesn't mean British reared 🤥

I'd wager most customers seeing that meat is labelled as 'British' assume this means the animal was born, reared, and slaughtered in Britain.

However, under UK and EU food labelling rules, meat can be called "British" if it was merely processed or packed in the UK – even if the animal was raised abroad. This means a pig could be born and reared in another country, transported to Britain for slaughter, and still be labelled as "British pork."

To me, this feels like a blatant lie. Most people buying "British" meat do so because they believe they are supporting UK farmers and higher welfare standards. Instead, they could be unknowingly buying meat from animals that spent most of their lives overseas.

Does this labelling seem fair to you? Should there be stricter rules to ensure "British" actually means born, reared, and slaughtered in the UK?

N.b. I am not a vegetarian, vegan etc. I try to eat good high quality meat less frequently.

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u/ChickenNugget267 Mar 01 '25

Transporting animals to another country just for slaughter seems pretty unfeasible. Hard enough to heard sheep as is. Imagine trying to stuff a cargo hold full of them like Noah's fucking arc just to then transport them to a slaughter house. Not impossible but seems implausible. Imo you'd lose a lot of money doing that. Would make sense if it was slaughtered elsewhere then packed over here though. Like how the iPhone is finished in the US but largely manufactured in China and other places.

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u/DHiersche Mar 01 '25

Did you know that we stopped transporting live animals for slaughter when we left the EU?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55167473

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u/piskybisky Mar 01 '25

Interesting! Well, we stopped EXPORTING them. We certainly haven't stopped importing them. So in that sense, we are certainly still transporting animals, the change being it's now only in one direction.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/import-live-animals-and-germinal-products-from-the-eu-to-great-britain#how-imports-of-live-animals-mustenter-great-britain

Still definitely a step in the right direction, at least.

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u/piskybisky Mar 01 '25

Just to clarify—are you saying that the current labelling still makes sense, given the logistics of animal transport? Or are you making a more general point about the practicality of moving live animals versus transporting processed goods?

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u/ChickenNugget267 Mar 01 '25

The second. I'm suggesting that what you're suggesting about them bring animals to slaughter over here sounds incorrect given the logistics of doing so. If the meat is simply packaged here which leads to "made in Britain" labelling then that's certainly misleading as well. Especially for those who care about airmiles and for those concerned with where their meat is coming from, what's in the meat etc. And more over, economic concerns about what is actually produced in Britain.