Tesco brands such as Boswell Farms and Rosedene Farms have come under heavy criticism from the National Farmers' Union (NFU) since their UK launch on Monday.

The NFU is claiming that the seven new monikers will give customers the wrong impression that the products were sourced on British farms, despite the names essentially being meaningless and the products often coming from abroad.

The NFU's Head of Food and Farming, Phil Bicknell, said: "It is clear that Tesco have identified that customers have a positive affinity with farmers and want to capitalise on this.

"The key question to ask with this is, what are these brands trying to communicate? If this is not aligned with the origin sourcing and specification of the product we must ask if this is misleading to customers".

Tesco deny any attempt has been made to mislead, saying in a statement:

"We've named the brands after farms to represent the quality specifications that go into every product across the range.

"Every product is sourced from a selection of farms and growers – some are small, family-run farms while others are of a larger scale – reared or grown to our specific standards from known and audited farms and growers".