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Waitrose - Gloucester Old Spot Pork

This has to be one of the oddest articles that I have written.

It starts from a position that I know that Gloucester Old Spot pork is a elicious rare breed pork that carries a great deal of flavour as well as a mandatory good cap of fat for flavour.

I was therefore very excited to see that Waitrose had started to include a Gloucester Old Spot range of pork products.

That excitement was short-lived though. I will make no additional comment, but you decide whether you would support Waitrose efforts?

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My letter to Waitrose:

----Original Message-----

From: food@foodwithpassion.co.uk
Sent: 13/06/2008 11:05:07 AM
To: <customer_service@waitrose.co.uk>
Subject: Gloucester Old Spot Products

Dear sirs,

I am writing to you as an interested consumer, but also as a journalist
running a website devoted to Food and cooking.

I was interested and excited to see that Waitrose was stocking
Gloucestershire Old Spot (GOS) pork products and thought I would read up on
the provenance via the Waitrose site before finding some products to try.

I assume that you know that GOS is a highly regarded Heritage breed that is
renowned for flavour and general eating qualities and for that reason you
would wish to serve some of that premium market.

I am very disappointed to note that you are not selling a pure bred product,
with the pigs only being sired by a GOS whilst the dam is of unspecified
breed. How then can we be sure that the resultant pork will have any
significant characteristics of the GOS and furthermore be consistent from
one occasion to the next? The key question is how genetically removed from
the GOS are the offspring ... 50%, 60% .... or what? I am no expert, but I
believe that it takes many, many generations of hybrid breeding to be
capable of getting close to a 'pedigree' specimen as 'throwbacks' need to be
eliminated from the line. I am therefore not convinced that your headline
grabbing GOS will be close to a pure-bred specimen and carry those desirable
eating qualities.

I would have been interested in the Forum discussion that evidently took
place but which now appears to have disappeared with Rob Collins of Waitrose
giving your position, but having apparently deleted all other customer
opinion and discussion on the matter.

I am especially disappointed that these products are headlined as GOS and
believe the labelling to be misleading. I see no difference between this and
labelling a sausage as vegetarian and then finding in the smaller print that
whilst part of it is of vegetable origin that it also contains some meat.

I run a website called Food with <http://www.foodwithpassion.co.uk/>
Passion which promises to fairly review products even although I start from
a position of some bias towards smaller producers creating quality produce.
I will certainly be looking closely at doing a head to head between Waitrose
GOS products and those from the pure-bred producers. Although I start with
some bias, I operate with that bias put to one side; I already surprised
myself with a great review of an M&S pork joint that featured on my site,
and you should have no fears about getting a fair, honest review..

Maybe you do have a great product and that will reveal itself in any head to
head cook off and taste test, but that doesn't excuse misleading headline
product names ... in my view it may be premium pork, but it cannot ever be
Gloucester Old Spot.

I would be grateful for any further Waitrose statement for publication
(verbatim) on my site and/or permission to reproduce Rob's comments,
particularly addressing why both sides of the argument would appear to have
been withdrawn from the Waitrose forum giving the customer the opportunity
to review all comments and decide whether to purchase your premium pork
based upon the arguments.

I look forward to your responses on this matter.

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The Waitrose response:

Waitrose has done more than any supermarket to support native breeds.

Our sole philosophy is offering our customers great tasting meat and supporting British Farming over the long term. It is to this end that we have taken the taste and quality of breed specific pork to a broad customer base. In doing so we have built customer demand for British Pork and developed a sustainable business for the British farmers that supply us.

Cross breeding is strongly rooted in the heritage of British agriculture and provides a way to improve eating quality in a way that is affordable for our customers and commercially viable for the farmers and breeders with whom we work. We believe this offers a balanced approach to delivering great taste and appropriate fat levels.

The parentage of our pork is clearly communicated through our labelling, which complies with the Food Labelling Advice and Trading Standards. We are currently reviewing all our meat labelling and will carefully consider the views of all parties.

We believe that the work of native breed producers should be celebrated and have never intended to compete with them. Our buying team very much want to continue discussions with The Gloucester Old Spot Society and have already issued invitations to do just that.

Jess Hughes,
Senior Press Officer (Corporate)

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Does that response do it for you? It didn't for me and I have no confidence that I would be nuying a legitimate Gloucester Old Spot product from Waitrose, but interested in visitor's views.