Yesterday we submitted a complaint to the Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) about false claims made by Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. The complaint brought the CMA's attention to the fact that both of these supermarkets have been selling game meat contaminated with toxic lead shot whilst simultaneously claiming not to stock it anymore.
Both Waitrose and Marks and Spencer have made bold public claims about the game meat they sell in recent years. Following some of our previous lab tests that revealed high levels of toxic lead in their game meat, Waitrose's most recent public commitment stated it had 'eliminated lead shot from our supply chain'. But our most recent testing shows that this isn't the case at all, with some Waitrose gamebirds from the 2023/24 shooting season still containing high levels of lead.
Similarly, Marks and Spencer has claimed to have gone lead-free when it comes to the game meat it sells - but our testing also shows that game meat being sold by M&S earlier this year was contaminated with lead.
The CMA has a ‘green claims code’ that provides guidance for businesses when making environmental claims about their goods and services. This guidance requires marketing claims made by companies to be ‘truthful and accurate’ and ‘substantiated’.
It seems to us that both Waitrose's and Marks and Spencer's claims of only selling lead-free game meat is untruthful, inaccurate and unsubstantiated. So, we've provided evidence to the CMA that in our view, the false claims being made by these supermarkets are breaches of the CMA guidance.
You can read our press release about our complaint to the CMA here.
This year's Red-legged Partridge shooting season is already in full swing (it began on 1st Sept) and the Pheasant shooting season opens on Monday (1st October). Once again we'll be testing game bird meat being sold by various supermarkets and other outlets, especially those claiming to stock only 'lead-free' birds, to see whether the gamebird shooting industry that supplies these products has managed to clean up its act and whether the supermarkets and other stockists are deceiving their customers with false claims about the products they're selling.
We'll update you when we hear back from the CMA.
That's it for now.
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