CARTMEL Village Sticky Toffee Pudding can call itself original' and genuine' - but the Food Standards Agency has declared it cannot describe itself as home-made'.

The decision follows a nationwide survey of more than 200 food items which, the FSA says, reveals that consumers are still being misled by labelling despite best practice guidance issued nearly two years ago.

The Cartmel Village Sticky Toffee Pudding Company was caught out when a trading standards food officer picked up a pudding in the Midlands and decided to investigate, convinced that it could not be home-made, as the label stated.

In fact, until three years ago, it was.

Jean Johns used to make the puddings on a domestic stove in the kitchen at the rear of Cartmel Village Post Office which she ran with husband Howard.

The number of fans just grew and grew - it includes Madonna - and the pudding now sells in Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Waitrose, and Fortnum & Mason and has a Europe-wide mail order customer base. So in 2000 the Johns decided to transform the village shop into an upmarket deli and construct a slightly larger purpose-built pudding kitchen at the bottom of their Cartmel garden.

"However, although the business has grown, our methods remain basically the same," Mr Johns told the FSA when informed the labelling should be altered.

"We asked if we could put hand-made' instead. The ingredients are weighed by hand and the sticky toffee sauce is stirred in a pan."

There isn't a conveyor belt in sight either but the Johns were told that because they use an electric mixer - "Who doesn't?" queried Mr Johns - they couldn't label their puddings hand-made.

"That surely means a suit can't be called tailor-made because it's made with a sewing machine," complained an exasperated Mr Johns.

Despite his frustration, the pudding company has since changed its labelling in line with FSA recommendations.

Consumers, it seems, could not care less what is on the label but they do love what's inside the packet. Such is demand that the yummy dessert has already outgrown its garden' production site. The Johns have planning permission for a new unit at Flookburgh and should learn this week if they have secured grant aid for the expansion.

Food writer Gillian Cowburn examines the Food Standards Agency report on labelling in this week's Leisure section.