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Our achievements:
Facts about products are supplied to consumers on labels, in leaflets, on our website and in response to individual letters, emails or phone calls.
Genetics
CRTG announced a policy on Genetic Modification, taking the lead by labelling foods, which have been produced using genetic modification. CRTG remains the only retailer to label cheese when it has been produced using genetic modification and is therefore suitable for vegetarians. As technology develops and debate continues, CRTG’s policy will be adapted to respond to changing circumstances and reflect consumer opinion.
The group shares its customers' concerns over GM Food and changes its GM policy to reflect customer opinion. CRTG brand suppliers are told not to use genetically modified ingredients, therefore no own brand food products will be made from any genetically modified ingredients or ingredients derived from a GM source.
Labelling:
Vegan Labels
'Suitable for Vegans' (as well as Vegetarians) is labelled on appropriate products.
Clear Labelling
CRTG makes a commitment to ensure labels give as much clear information as possible. For example, the percentage of each key ingredient and the country of origin is declared on all own brand products, although not always required by law. CRTG declares ingredients listings on toiletries in plain English instead of official Latin ingredient names, which are not easily understood.
Honest Labelling
CRTG identifies labelling 'tricks of the trade’, which are used to make products sound bigger and better than they really are. CRTG produces a code of practice and calls for industry to adhere to it. Consumer groups welcome the move.
Wine Ingredients Labelling
CRTG is the only retailer to label the ingredients in wine in support of its commitment to be open and honest. This move is technically illegal, but in the consumer's interest. CRTG lobbies the Government to change the law and calls upon the food industry to follow suit but continues to be the only retailer to put the consumer's interests before the law.
Animal Ingredients
The presence or absence of animal ingredients is made clear on all the co-operative brand non-food products.
Consumer Jury
CRTG is the first retailer to give a jury of members and customers the power to change its labels if they feel consumers are being misled. This becomes a fundamental part of our Honest Labelling campaign. Its existence ensures that consumer complaints are genuinely acted upon.
Food Crimes - Honest Food
CRTG lifts the lid on seven food crimes. While today's shoppers are spoiled for choice and can buy staple foods at affordable prices all year round, the pursuit of plenty has yielded some shameful side effects. Health scares; environmental violations and animal welfare outrages have shocked the public. So much so that today's consumers are broadly mistrustful of the industry. Consumers welcome the choice but want to take back the power they have lost as food becomes increasingly mechanised, processed, packaged and commercialised. As a consequence CRTG launched a series of radical enquiries into the 'food crimes' being committed in the name of progress. And a number of initiatives will start the process of redressing the balance of power between consumers and big business.
Blackmail
The first enquiry launched after the Food Crimes report highlighted parental concern about the impact of TV advertising of food and drink products on their children's diets. As a result, CRTG commits itself to a voluntary ban on advertising, during children's TV hours, of all food and drink products high in fat, sugar or salt. CRTG calls on others in the food chain to follow its lead and campaigns for the Independent Television Commission (ITC) to impose a ban.
Cannibalism
CRTG calls for a Europe-wide ban on the feeding of animal waste to farm animals. In the wake of the BSE crisis, which we now know can be largely blamed on animal waste being fed back to farm animals, our customers are dismayed at the way the regulations still pick and choose between acceptable and unacceptable feed ingredients like blood and bone meal. CRTG believe that this is tantamount to cannibalism and must be stamped out if governments want to eliminate potential safety risks and restore consumer confidence in meat.
British Farm Standard
CRTG supports the British Farm Standard and where appropriate incorporates the red tractor logo on its packaging.
Organics
CRTG launches a comprehensive range of organic products in all its food stores, ensuring that even shoppers in its convenience stores can choose an organic alternative at prices that are down to earth.
Co-op Eggs - non-GM and no colourants. CRTG brand free range and barn eggs are laid by hens whose diet contains maize and soya, which is non-GM origin. The diet does not contain any ingredients designed solely to enhance yolk colour.
Green and Pleasant Land
As part of its 'Food Crimes' inquiries CRTG turns the spotlight on consumer’s mistrust of agrochemicals. As a result of the enquiry, CRTG bans over 20 pesticides used for food production worldwide amid rising consumer concerns about the impact on human health and the environment of chemical residues. The groundbreaking move comes with a challenge to governments, the EU, the agrochemical industry and other retailers to embark on a radical rethink of pesticide safety and regulatory controls.
2002 - Pillage - The Chocolate Report
A Food Crimes investigation into exploitation in the developing world. The report focuses on the poverty of West African Cocoa growers and shows what a huge difference can be made by supporting Fairtrade. At this time CRTG takes the momentous step in converting all its own brand block chocolate to Fairtrade and campaigns others to follow its lead.
MSG and colour ban
CRTG became the first supermarket group to ban a range of commonly used colours and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in all our own-label food, because of potential links to food intolerance and fresh concerns about children's diets.
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