THE British Pig Executive welcomes the recent decision by J Sainsbury to stop using tertiary brands in its bacon category, and to review their use for ham and pork, and calls on other retailers to do the same.

Tertiary brands, which are not recognised national brands, are often used by individual retailers for cut-price promotions on pork and pork products that are outside the specifications for their own label, particularly with regard to pig welfare standards.

All bacon will now be sold under J Sainsbury own label, which the company has previously declared is only applied to pork and pork products, regardless of origin, that conform to UK legal welfare standards (see www.lookforthemark.co.uk <http://www.lookforthemark.co.uk>).

Chairman of BPEX, Stewart Houston, said: "I am encouraged by this positive move by Sainsbury's. It is something that the pig industry has been pursuing for some time and I would now like to see the other retailers take the same action.

"For far too long, many supermarkets have been using tertiary brands as flags of convenience to sell products that do not meet standards of animal welfare specified for their own label lines.

"These tertiary brands have also enabled them to claim that they have no influence over the production standards of products sold under these labels.

"I can only imagine this is done to exploit the opportunity to sell some imported cheaper product."

60% of the pork and pork products we eat in this country are imported. And two-thirds of these imports do not conform to welfare standards required under UK legislation.

Mr Houston continued: "We have been working with the National Pig Association for the last two years in pressing retailers and foodservice operators to source all their pork and pork products to the UK legal specification."

Note to editors: Report on the Growth in Pig Meat Imports in the UK 2004 can be found on www.bpex.org.uk