Festive food fakes

Traditional Christmas foods such as mincemeat and stuffing may contain little of the expected ingredients, new research shows.

The Consumers' Association's Health Which? magazine claims some food labels boast exotic fruits or meat - but there isn't much inside.

The magazine found Paxo's Celebration Sausagemeat and Thyme Stuffing contained only eight per cent meat, which was mechanically separated turkey.

The main ingredient of Tesco mincemeat was not dried fruit and suet but sugar, while Whole Earth Organic Mountain Cranberry Drink, a popular Christmas cocktail mixer, contained only 0.42 per cent cranberry.

Sixty out of 90 people quizzed by the magazine thought sausagemeat and thyme stuffing would be made mainly of sausagemeat. A similar number believed cranberry would be the chief cranberry drink ingredient.

Editor Kaye McIntosh said: "Few of our testers knew that ingredients are listed by amount, with the main ingredients first. And people are shocked to discover some products don't have the contents you'd expect from the product name. Health Which? is calling for the food and drinks industry to label products honestly and stop misleading customers."

The Food and Drink Federation said it was working with manufacturers and the Food Standards Agency to try and improve labelling. "There is no point in misleading customers as it just causes them to lose trust in a product," said a spokeswoman.

Paxo said it would change its product name to Sausagemeat and Thyme Flavour Stuffing Mix.