Potatoes on retail sale are required by law to be labelled with the name of the variety. However, when the FSA checked the labelling of potatoes on sale in February and April this year, more than a third gave the wrong information.
Retailers are increasingly marketing the differences between varieties of potatoes in order to segment the market, add value and encourage customers to choose different types because of their particular taste and texture characteristics. But the FSA survey showed that out of 294 potato samples taken, 33 per cent of the potatoes were wrongly labelled, 17 per cent of these were not the variety they were claiming to be, and 16 per cent were not labelled with sufficient information showing no variety name at all.
In order to check whether the potatoes are the type they are labelled as, the agency funded research to develop a new DNA testing method. This has led to the creation of a database of profiles of different potato varieties featuring 98 different potato types.
Rosemary Hignett, head of food labelling and standards at the FSA, said:
'It is clear that consumers are not always getting what they are paying for, and this is unacceptable. Whilst mislabelling of potatoes in some shops and on some market stalls may be down to incorrect variety labelling at wholesalers or lack of knowledge of the labelling requirements, the bottom line is that consumers are losing out.
"There is clearly a particular problem at wholesale markets, and we are working with local authorities on follow-up action to make sure that this is resolved."
Of the potatoes sampled, those most likely to be mislabelled were King Edwards. Of the 37 samples taken that were labelled as King Edward, 43 per cent were not King Edwards at all. Most of these were a little-known variety called Ambo.
Nearly all of the incorrectly labelled samples came from small, independent retailers stalls and wholesalers. A similar number of mislabelled/unlabelled samples were collected from most of these outlets. However, of 19 samples collected from wholesale markets, 16 samples were mislabelled and not the variety they were claiming to be.
Results of the full survey, including samples taken in June that are being analysed, will be published shortly. However the results from the first two parts of the survey have now been passed on to the relevant local authorities to follow up the results with the sample owners.
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