Bringing you the latest news on British products in the supermarkets and other major items of interest about British food; here is our round-up for May.

• Mandatory rules for country of origin labelling are one step closer! The EU Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has voted unanimously for country of origin labelling for all meat, poultry, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables with a country of origin. Members also backed country of origin labelling for meat, poultry and fish when used as an ingredient in processed foods. The decision will now be taken back to European Parliament in July where members must back a plenary vote. 


• Tesco has started to import Black Angus beef from America, a direct competitor to Aberdeen Angus. British farmers produce 64 per cent of the beef we eat. Most of the rest comes from Ireland, but also increasingly Brazil and now, for the first time in many years, the USA. British farmers fear this increased competition will undercut their beef on price and shoppers will move away from British! Don't let this be the case – buy British today!


• Waitrose has become the first supermarket to commit to offering English only cherries for the key window of the UK season – five weeks at the height of the summer. They will begin selling cherries from May with imported produce from N. America, Turkey and Spain. Imported cherries will then be phased out for the five week 100 per cent English season and then in August, as the English season draws to a close, it will be English topped up with imported fruit.


• Look forward to a bumper strawberry crop!  The warm weather has brought crops out 2 weeks earlier than usual and is predicted to be the best harvest in 20 years. As a result the number of strawberries imported from countries like Spain has been reduced by 50 per cent.  Tesco has pledged to sell predominately English strawberries from the month of May.


• Get your English aubergines now! The Yorkshire grown aubergines, supplied by English Village Salads Ltd, have come into season and will be available in supermarkets now until November.


• Tesco has met the local target it set itself back in 2006 this month. The supermarket has broken its £1bn barrier for sales of locally sourced products.


• Asda is exclusively stocking the branded Cornish Crystal potatoes this year. The Cornish new potatoes have already hit supermarket shelves, making them one of the earliest UK mainland potatoes currently being sold.


• Volume sales of English apples have risen by 6 per cent this year and could grow by a further 50 per cent on the back of recent strong support for the industry by the multiples.


• Harvey Nichols has announced it will be holding summer dining events to take urbanites out of the city and closer to traditionally produced foods. The Hand Picked by Harvey Nichols events include tours, culinary master-classes, communal lunches and activities showcasing ethical fishing and traditional pig rearing.


• East of England Co-operative has launched a new ‘Sourced Locally’ brand in-store. 200 stores across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have been using shelf barkers to highlight food miles for some time but they are now broadening the marketing so all local foods are flagged up under the Sourced Locally brand.


• A new study by The People's Trust for Endangered Species has found that nearly half of England's traditional apple, pear and cherry orchards have been abandoned or are being neglected.  The loss severely threatens rare, historic varieties of fruit such as Sheep's Snout and Slack my Girdle apples.


• Finally, planning applications are in place for at least six rabbit battery farms across the UK. Britain eats 3,000 tonnes of rabbit meat each year, virtually all of it imported, however many have concerns about the increased traffic and the animal welfare rights. Some state “They are moving away from battery farming in chickens, so it seems like a retrograde step.” 

Seasonal foods at their best to look out for in the supermarkets this month: 
Vegetables: asparagus, aubergine, broad beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, jersey royal new potatoes, kohlrabi, lettuces and salad leaves, new potatoes, onions, peas, potatoes (maincrop), radishes, rhubarb, rocket, samphire, spinach, spring onions, watercress and wild nettles.
Fruit: cherries, elderflowers, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes.
Herbs: basil, chervil, chives, coriander, dill, elderflowers, mint, mushrooms (cultivated), mushrooms (wild), nasturtium, oregano, parsley (curly), parsley (flat-leaf), rosemary, sage, sorrel and tarragon.
Meat: beef, chicken, lamb, pork, rabbit, turkey, and wood pigeon.
Fish: cockles, cod, coley, cnger eel, crab, herring, john dory, lemon sole, lobster, mackerel, plaice, pollack, prawns, salmon, sardines, sea trout, shrimp, whelks and whitebait.
See at the touch of a button all the British produce currently available in the supermarkets - [search Want to Buy British by product or by supermarket].