The demand follows a survey which found that a significant amount of beef sold in pubs and restaurants as "local" or "British" had come from abroad.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) believes the findings are a damning indictment of the food-service sector and wants to see the Government bring in new rules to make labelling mandatory in pubs and restaurants.

The CLA's Just Ask campaign puts a responsibility on the consumer to ask the origin of food sold, and also on the supplier to make sure that food it says is local is precisely that.

A spokesman for the Yorkshire region of the CLA, which covers Scarborough, said: "Unfortunately the findings come as no surprise – this kind of practice was the very reason why the CLA launched the Just Ask campaign. Frankly, the range of answers you get when you ask where the steak you are eating comes from often beggars belief.

"It is essential the Govern- ment introduces a mandatory beef-labelling scheme in England, as is allowed under EU law. It is simply unacceptable for those in the food-service sector to pass off foreign beef as locally produced. Government sanctions are urgently needed."