Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The food labelling group, which was established in July 2002, presented its report in December 2002. Notwithstanding that food labelling is a particularly complicated and broadly based area, substantial progress has been made to date in the implementation of the recommendations of the report. Nineteen of the 21 recommendations, many of which were beyond the remit of the Department and some of which were to be activated only after others had been completed, have been addressed. I hope the remaining two recommendations, which relate to aspects of origin labelling, can be implemented shortly.

The two main issues that emerged from the recommendations of the labelling group related to the need to centralise enforcement in one agency and the definition of origin. In December 2002 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment had policy responsibility for the main legislation for the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, the Department of Health and Children was responsible for policy on other food labelling legislation, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was responsible for the policy on the labelling of fish and fish products, the Department of Agriculture and Food was responsible for policy on legislation covering the labelling of specific products ranging from beef, poultry and sugar to spirit drinks, coffee and fruit juices, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland was responsible for the enforcement of the beef labelling regulations and the health boards operated the controls on the other products under the general aegis of the Department.

The position now, following implementation of the food labelling group recommendation, is that enforcement of all food labelling regulations has been centralised in the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI. This will not only streamline the enforcement measures but will also provide a one-stop-shop for any complaints on the mislabelling of food. As part of the centralisation of enforcement, the centralisation of food labelling policy, with the exception of fish, in both the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Agriculture and Food was undertaken in accordance with another recommendation of the food labelling group.

There was full agreement within the food labelling group that consumers have a right to information on the origin of the meat they cook in their homes or eat out. While the group could not agree on how origin should be defined, there was unanimous agreement that further research was necessary to establish consumers' wishes in this area. The consumer liaison panel has carried out this research, the results of which were presented in December 2003.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

I am determined, in so far as it is within the powers available to me, to meet the wishes of consumers as identified in the research. Early in 2004, two regulations were introduced on the labelling of poultry meat. The first of these requires poultry meat, loose and prepackaged, originating in a country outside the EU to bear an indication of the country of origin when offered for sale in a retail premises. The second requires information regarding class, price per unit weight, condition and slaughterhouse details in respect of loose poultry meat, non-prepackaged, to be provided to the consumer. In addition to the above-mentioned action, each sector is being reviewed on a commodity by commodity basis to identify any deficiencies from a consumer viewpoint in the labelling regulations for those commodities.

In the beef sector, EU beef labelling regulations, which are extremely comprehensive, do not require beef sold in the food service outlets to have country of origin displayed. The European Commission published a review of these regulations at the end of April 2004. The report does not favour the extension of these regulations to the catering sector. However, I believe that consumers, whether they purchase beef in butchers' shops or supermarkets or opt for beef in restaurants and catering establishments, have the right to know the origin of the product and the labelling regulation should provide for this. It is my intention to proceed with a national legal requirement that country of origin must be displayed in respect of beef sold in such premises and outlets. The legal mechanisms to bring this into effect are under examination.

On the food labelling issue in general, my primary aim is to protect consumer interests and to ensure that consumers are properly informed. Ireland is a major exporter of food and food products and there are also considerable imports, so it is imperative that the same standards are applied to the labelling of foods in every sector and that there is a level playing field for the food industry at all levels. In this context my Department has pursued assiduously the implementation in as full a manner as possible of the recommendations of the food labelling group. At a meeting of the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers on 28 February this year the Minister indicated her views on labelling of foodstuffs and along with a number of member states, asked the Commission to examine how best food labelling should be handled at EU level to best protect the interests of the consumer.

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