Tesco larceny and mendacity

Here is an email I sent to Tesco.

It has been brought to my attention that Tesco label food that contains fish as being Suitable for Vegetarians. This is contrary to the guidance issued by the Food Standards Agency, to that issued by the Vegetarian Society and to the generally accepted definition of Vegetarianism, for example that used in widely available Vegetarian cookbooks, and in the O-Level syllabus as far back as the 1980s.

Vegetarians do not eat fish, therefore anything containing fish is not vegetarian. To label such a product as being suitable for vegetarians is misleading and is intended to encourage vegetarians to buy the product under false pretences. This seems to me to be verging on fraud or theft.

I originally discovered this when a friend wrote to complain, and was told untruthfully that vegetarians eat fish. I blogged this; recently somebody picked this up from my blog by Googling so I re-blogged it, since when a number of UK Bloggers have run with the story.

I would like to know whether Tesco are prepared to stand by their lies, or admit that they have made a mistake and publicly apologise for their mendacity and larceny.

I have tried sending it to Watchdog but their submission form seems broken. I shall retry.

More details at...oh, heck, should I post the link, considering that I included my url in my auto-sig on the email?

I'll get back to you on that one!

BTW, they also mislead in other ways, too.

And discovered in the New Statesman online

David Reading, director of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, said Tesco's decision to label bottles of milk with the warning "Allergy Advice: contains milk" and bags of assorted nuts with the warning "Allergy Advice: contains nuts" undermined the seriousness of the problem of food allergies. Tesco defended its decision, saying that it wanted customers to have "all the possible information they should need".

from the Sheffield Star

I was actually looking for this story

The supermarket chain Tesco won a high court order yesterday to remove environmental activists from woodland which the company wants to fell to make way for a new store. The protesters' leader, Oliver Carter, 24, has been living in a tree house in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, for 11 days. The planned supermarket and new homes have council permission, but Mr Carter is supported by some residents.

Mr Carter sought an adjournment yesterday, saying he had first heard about the hearing on Tuesday evening. But the judge said legal notices had been on the site since Friday. Mr Carter said later: "Of course they won in court. They had four legal experts and a highly trained barrister. All my legal advice came from King Arthur Pendragon, a druid priest. But I've got the whole of Shepton Mallet behind me."