BUTCHERS got the chance to take their criticisms of a new beef labelling system to the top.

Andy Sears and Andy Ayris, partners at Andrew's Butchers in Highworth, are against new measures being introduced to ensure customers know where their meat is produced along the food chain in the wake of the BSE crisis.

They shared their concerns with Peter Reynolds, a spokes-man from the Meat and Livestock Commission, during a phone-in at their shop.

The pair told him they buy their beef from a local farm at Eastrop and label it themselves so can see no reason to adopt a new system.

They fear it will mean more paperwork and manpower which will prove costly to their small business.

"We are buying beef from local farms and have continued to do that since the BSE outbreak when everyone else switched to imported beef," said Mr Sears.

"But it feels like we are getting kicked for doing the right thing.

"On a sirloin steak, for example, there will have to be information about where the animal was born, reared, killed, packed and processed with the new labelling. But we are already doing that.

"I can understand bringing in the new system on a larger scale with supermarkets which have the manpower to do it but we haven't got that or the time."

They were backed by local farmer Guy Dibble who supplies them with their beef.

He said: "I think all meat should be labelled with the country where it is produced if it is imported. But if it is home produced and going to a local butcher, it shouldn't need to be."

Mr Reynolds told the butchers he sympathised but said the results of research from the Comm-ission show 88 per cent of con- sumers want beef labelled with its country of origin.

"One sympathises with the amount of work involved but it is about customer assurance and customers being absolutely certain beef can be traced back to source and is what it says it is.

"Current regulations are very demanding but there is demand from consumers for clearer labelling."