Lidl has rushed to remove outdated references to so-called fake farm branding on its website after it was quizzed by MPs on Wednesday.
The discounter’s chief commercial officer Richard Bourns denied claims it was still using the labelling to MPs on the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Efra) committee.
He repeatedly told members Lidl “categorically” did not use the term ‘farms’, after the committee referred to its use of the names Strathvale Farm and Birchwood Farm.
However, MPs pointed out several instances of Strathvale Farm products, including chicken, beef mince and meatballs, still appeared on Lidl’s website.
On Wednesday (1 May), a page on the supermarket’s website showed a picture of a farm and referred to Strathvale Farm chicken “reared with care by Scottish farmers”, according to The Grocer.
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Bourns told the committee no products suggesting to be from such farms were still sold in Lidl and that it also did not sell chicken from Scotland.
“If there is a reference to Strathvale Farms on our website I’d want to take that away and correct it,” he said. “It could be the case that our website is not up to date.
“We do not have an online offering but I can categorically tell you we do not have farms brands in our business, just to be absolutely clear.
“So we have Strathvale for Scottish meat in Scotland, we have Birchwood for British meat in the UK, but we do not have Strathvale Farms and we do not have Birchwood Farms.”
As of this morning, Google searches for the phrase ‘Strathvale Farm’ no longer lead to the same information.
Lidl said it had stopped selling ‘farm brands’ in its stores back in 2019 in response to customer feedback, however, it is understood the supermarket is still checking the site to ensure any out-of-date references to such branding are removed.
A spokeswoman for the discounter told The Grocer: “Statements made by Lidl at the committee were all correct. Lidl does not have any own-label products with ‘farm’ featured in the name, having fully removed it following customer feedback five years ago.
“Any historic web pages featuring old packaging that appear via a search engine are in the process of being removed to ensure complete accuracy.”
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