Stuart Coverley’s News Round-up

Food Production Problems

A report from the Bank of England confirms that between May 1996 and September 1998 farm gate prices fell by 23.2% while the food retail price index increased by 0.6%. There may also be higher costs for organic farmers who, from 2000, will have to use organically produced seed rather than conventional seed as now.

Meanwhile a sample survey of Local Education Authorities by the Food Commission has shown that a large number are rejecting genetically modified food and food ingredients for school meals. As the law does not require all genetically modified foods to be labelled, some admit they are only able to do their best to keep away from GM products. So complicated are the changing food regulations that a publication Food Law Monthly is now published. The bad news is that the concessionary subscription for new members is £199!

What a difference

Some of us subscribe to American consumer magazines such as Consumer Reports. Their value is sometimes decreased because there is a difference between the composition of the American version of a food or other product, and that which is sold here under the same trade name.An example from the Food Magazine is the breakfast cereal Cheerios. In the USA it is produced by General Mills and receives an endorsement from the American Heart Association as it contains only 5% sugar. By the time it reaches the UK market the manufacturers here, Nestlé have sweetened it with not only sugar but also invert sugar syrup and brown sugar which then adds up to over 22% of the product. Why cannot we have the healthy version, even if it is called by another name?

Safety Instructions

We must all have been frustrated by instruction leaflets supplied with self-build flat-pack furniture and electrical goods. The old days of incomprehensible instructions translated from other languages by people not sufficiently versed in English are not as evident as they were, but too often all that is provided is a series of diagrams with no markings on the product’s parts. The drawers of one side of my desk show a gap where I got one part the wrong way round.

The DTI is more worried about safety instructions on electrical appliances which sometimes assume the consumer has more knowledge than he, or even more likely, according to the report, she has. Men are, however, less likely to read the safety instructions. The DTI report Writing Safety Instructions for Consumer Products can be obtained from Room 422, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET.

*Dixons Group has a department at its Head Office devoted to rewriting instruction books - Ed

Rogue Directors

Consumer Groups have long complained about the directors of bankrupt firms closing them down and setting up again under a similar name. This sometimes goes undetected.

The introduction of the oddly named Defiant Director Hotline a year ago has produced some successes. The 1,200 calls received have been carefully followed up, prosecutions are currently being considered in 100 cases and 300 complainants have provided further assistance. The number to phone if you have evidence to

on is 0845 601 3546.

Chocolate Mouse Bar

Mars has somewhat surprisingly been cleared of any blame for the part of a mouse found in a Topic bar, when prosecuted under the Food Safety Act. It was decided in court that the mouse was most likely Turkish in origin, not British, and came into the UK inside a bag of hazelnuts.

One wonders what the result would have been if the case had been brought under the Sale of Goods Act against the shopkeeper who sold the bar - which was clearly not suitable for its purpose, that of being eaten!

One wonders also how the court knew it was a Turkish mouse rather than an English one; perhaps it wore curly pointed slippers?

IKEA Mystery

The headline in a daily newspaper criticising prices charged in the UK compared with Europe was described as a quotation from NfCG yet neither we nor the journalist concerned can trace the quote.

This led to me visiting IKEA where Andy Nash, the Finance Director, explained why prices can be higher in the UK than at some of their branches elsewhere in the world. Costs, including taxes, overheads, site location and other operating expenses may be higher in the UK and it will be some time before there is harmonisation of these within Europe. The firm’s UK prices are set without reference to those in other countries. They are pitched 20% to 40% lower than their main competitors on comparable goods. Supplying larger items as flat packs reduces the costs of transport and storage and the customer provides part of the labour in final assembly.

Profits and borrowed money are used for expansion - new stores are opening in Bristol at the end of March and in Edinburgh next November. The products are designed in Sweden and ordered by 150 world-wide stores from 2,500 different suppliers in over 65 countries. Final quality can vary to some extent depending upon the source. For example furniture containing fire resistant materials is made in the UK for the home market, because of the more stringent regulations here. Besides the 6% extra cost of treating the fabric, production costs are higher compared with China or Poland, from where European Ikea's may obtain their supplies. IKEA UK is run as an independent company but is owned by a charitable foundation in Holland.

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