Environment minister Liz Truss has urged food producers in Norfolk to apply for protected name status for food products.
Speaking at the Norfolk Farming Conference last week, Truss said she plans to launch a campaign with local paper, the Eastern Daily Press, to encourage the county’s food and drink producers to come forward and apply.
“Cornwall has six protected food names, Kent and Yorkshire three each. The producers there now have the sales advantage of this scheme which gives legal safeguards against outside imitators,” she said.
“But you know what – Norfolk does not have a single Protected Food Name it can call its own.”
Truss, who is also the MP for Norfolk, highlighted several locally-produced food products that she said would merit a protected name status, including the Norfolk Peer potato, grown by Heygate Farms of Swaffham.
“No county merits it more than this, the cradle of the agricultural revolution,” she added.
She also claimed studies have shown that protected name products can fetch higher prices than similar food that has no protected status, and can help boost exports as it is a mark of quality.
Producers or growers can apply for three protected name statuses: Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).
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