Sir; I read with interest the letter on "factual" labelling (January 8, p17) that called for food labels to reflect accurately the country of origin. At present, manufacturers and retailers are not required to label their products with country of origin unless by not doing so they mislead consumers. However, where country of origin is given, companies are only required to label their products as originating from the country in which they last underwent "a substantial change". For example, French chicken in a chicken pie produced in the UK can legitimately be labelled "product of the UK". As part of its honest labelling campaign, the Co-op identified this labelling loophole some 16 months ago and pledged to label country of origin information as precisely as possible. For example, our chilli con carne declares "product of UK made with Argentinian beef". We also lobbied the government for change. We welcomed the government's announcement last October that it was to look at new guidelines to tighten up labelling in this area and we are working closely with them on this so that consumers can make informed choices about the products they buy ­ a key element of our honest labelling drive. Wendy Wrigley General manager ­ retail brands CWS {{LETTERS }}