It’s hard to verify claims of food origin these days. Yet another audit confirms the problem — in England about a third of food labels are said to be a unverifiable or false.

Local Government Regulation inspectors tested 558 items in 300 shops, restaurants, markets and factories.

They found misleading labels including “Welsh lamb” which actually came from New Zealand, “Somerset butter” from Scotland and “Devon ham” from Denmark.

And then you might find someone selling Cheddar not made in Cheddar, England and Budweiser not from the Czech Republic….

This seems like better news than finding out your food is laced with poison, or that it was repacked after being declared rotten, or even that it was obtained unethically; but it still creates a curious breach of trust.

I can imagine several ways to address this, aside from RFID labels and real-time tracking databases. The most successful approaches likely will emphasize change in demand with encouragement to consumers to build trust with growers and re-learn traditional supply limitations (e.g. no lamb except in the spring).