Baking Heavy Weights Hovis Bid to Get Red Tractor Status

Hovis is in talks with Assured Food Standards (AFS) administrators and Premier Foods in the hope of being granted Red Tractor sanction.

The British bakery has already switched to 100 per cent UK flour in a bid to win officials over.

If granted, the company would be allowed to use the Red Tractor logo, which guarantees food safety, hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection standards, on their products.

AFS crops sector chairman Matthew Read said: “They need to get through 12 months of that, but we will be talking to them to get our foot in the door. We haven’t got a loaf of bread [with the logo], but I am hopeful we will crack that problem in the near future.
“We’re talking to the National Association of British and Irish Millers’ members and, out of that, opportunities will arise.”

Interest in the Red Tractor logo has grown over the last year.

AFS chief executive David Clarke added that processors using grain as an essential ingredient were obvious candidates for developing the use of the logo.