Typo blamed for 'misleading' Red Tractor claim

Red Tractor, the UKs biggest farm and food assurance scheme, has said a typo led to accusations that it misled consumers over the traceability of foodstuffs.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has asked Red Tractor to clarify its message after it was contacted by six people following a post on Twitter and a second on Facebook during British Food Fortnight in September 2021.

The Twitter post was headed, Why buy British wheat flour? while the reply stated: Did you know all Red Tractor wheat requires a passport for supply chain traceability? This is part of proving it has met our rigorous certified standards and is traceable from farm to pack.

The ASA complainants had queried whether Red Tractor could substantiate a perceived claim that wheat could be traced back to an individual farm.

A spokesperson for Red Tractor said:Red Tractor is proud to work on behalf of our farmer members, promoting their assured British food and the world-class standards they farm to.

We never intentionally mislead about any aspect of our scheme, but occasionally mistakes are made. In this case a typo was overlooked where the letter s was missed in the word farms, putting one social media post at odds with our consistent messaging on the ability to trace produce back to assured farms.

It is disappointing that a post designed to promote British farmers has been manipulated as means to undermine our industrys credibility at this especially challenging time.