An award-winning farm shop which prides itself on promoting local produce has apologised after meat described as “Welsh” was found to be from Belgium.
Sandra Birch paid a “premium price” for what she thought was a Welsh ham joint atBodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley.
Despite a label which described the meat as Welsh, Sandra discovered its true origin when she saw the ham was stamped with the word “Belgie”.
“To my utter dismay, on opening the packaging, it was clearly produced in Belgium,” she said.
“I had paid a premium price and felt deceived, and wondered about the authenticity of their other products.
“I did write to complain, but received a rather cavalier reply. Bodnant did admit that the pork could come from an EU country, but this was certainly not what it said on the label.”
The label on the meat says “Welsh cured gammon joint”, “pork produced in Wales”, and “origin - Welsh”.
Chris Morton, managing director at Bodnant Welsh Food Centre , said: “We are fully committed to promoting Welsh produce.
“Our gammon is cured in Wales and is supplied to us by Farm Fresh, part of Castell Howell, a long-established, reputable and fully accredited company and Wales’ biggest producer of cured meats.
“We would like to apologise that, in this instance, the gammon joint had been incorrectly labelled, and we have taken immediate steps to ensure this does not happen again.
“We support Welsh farmers - all our fresh lamb, beef, pork and Christmas poultry comes from Wales, with the vast majority from nearby farms.
“We invite Mrs Birch to meet our butchery team to discuss how and where we source our meats to set her mind at rest.
"All the fresh lamb, beef and pork at Bodnant is sourced directly from Wales. Our gammon is cured in Wales by a reputable, fully accredited supplier. They use pork sourced from the EU, including Wales and the UK. We will continue to work with Welsh suppliers.”
The food centre was given a grand opening by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2012, and has since been named Welsh Farm Shop of the Year and the best in the UK by BBC Good Food magazine.
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