Warning Labels for Meat?
June 28/London/Daily Mail -- Packages of red meat should carry warning labels advising shoppers to ration themselves to three portions a week, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The WWF, which also wants Britons to switch to milk substitutes, said that livestock farming is fuelling climate change.

It argues that meat packs should carry a warning label reading "one of three a week max," while bottles of milk or packs of cheese should state "one of three a day max."

It also wants the composition of ready meals to be changed -- for example by reducing the amount of beef in a cottage pie.

The move comes amid concerns that cattle produce vast amounts of greenhouse gases -- from both ends.

Charlotte Lee-Woolf of the WWF told The Grocer magazine that selling meat and dairy substitutes could be equally profitable for supermarkets.

"There's an opportunity to provide new sources of food and supermarkets have a part to play in making that easier for consumers," she said.

However, a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, which speaks for supermarkets, said, "This approach is very radical.

"Retailers do not want to be seen as responsible for the decimation of the U.K. meat and dairy industry."  

From the July 6, 2009, Prepared Foods E-dition