Written answers

Wednesday, 4 May 2005

Department of Agriculture and Food

Food Labelling

9:00 pm

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 363: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the success or otherwise of her efforts to discourage misleading relabelling of meat and meat products; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14573/05]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There are a number of pieces of legislation governing the labelling of meat and meat products. The general labelling regulations covering among other things all food sold in Ireland require that the information be given clearly, accurately and in a language understood by the consumer. This legislation comes within the remit of the Department of Health and Children. My Department is responsible for policy regarding legislation on the labelling of specific products including beef and poultry meat.

The labelling of beef is governed by EU regulations which were introduced in 2000. These require operators involved in the marketing of beef to label their product with a reference code to enable the beef to be traced back to the animal or group of animals from which it was derived; the approval number of the slaughterhouse and the country in which it is located; the approval number of the de-boning hall and the country in which it is located; and an indication of the origin of the animal from which the beef was derived.

For the purpose of these regulations, marketing means all aspects of beef production and marketing up to and including retail sale. These labelling requirements, which are compulsory in all member states, apply to the marketing of beef within the community regardless of whether that beef was produced within the community or in a third country. Where beef is imported into the Community from a third country and not all the above details are available, that beef must at a minimum be labelled as "Origin: non-EC" along with an indication of the third country in which slaughter took place.

My Department introduced two regulations on the labelling of poultry meat at the beginning of last year. The first of these regulations requires poultry meat, both loose and pre-packaged, 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, that is, non-prepackaged, to be provided to the consumer. Heretofore, while these labelling indications have been compulsory for pre-packaged poultry meat, it had not been a requirement to provide this information for poultry meat sold loose.

In addition to the above mentioned action, a working group within my Department is examining the labelling legislation for each of the meat sectors to identify any deficiencies, from a consumer viewpoint, in the labelling regulations for those commodities. Responsibility for the enforcement of all this legislation is now centralised with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and any instances of misleading labelling should be reported to that authority. I am satisfied that where it is shown that the regulations referred to above are not being complied with that the appropriate action to remedy the problem is being taken by the relevant agency.

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