Norwegian salmon is being passed off in UK supermarkets as caught in Scotland, according to a report from Scottish Quality Salmon. The food stores are getting around the loophole by processing the fish in Scottish factories, and changing the label for the country of origin. The SQF is warning stores it could face a backlash from consumers. But the major supermarket chains are playing down the accusation. The issue came to the fore this week as the Scottish Food Industry called for tighter labelling controls on foods to clearly display the country of origin. But the multiples say they have tight controls in place to prevent inaccurate labelling. Sainsbury says it has traceability contracts with all its Scottish salmon suppliers. And Asda said: "We have assurances from our suppliers, and salmon labelled with Scotland as the country of origin is from Scotland." Safeway and Tesco also said suitable monitoring systems in place. In a Mori poll on behalf of SQS, two thirds of the 1,945 people surveyed said they had bought Scottish salmon but only 40% could remember seeing a country of origin label. But two thirds of the respondents also said they believed that the best salmon in the world came from Norway. {{NEWS }}

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