Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the action she intends to take to improve food labelling; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17328/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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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 broad 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 my Department and some of which were to be activated only after others had been completed, have been addressed. I am hopeful that 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. The position, in December 2002, regarding responsibility for food labelling was that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment had policy responsibility for the main legislation for the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, that is, the European Council Directive 2000/13/EC. The Director of Consumer Affairs was responsible for the enforcement of that directive.

The Department of Health and Children was responsible for policy on other food labelling legislation, such as nutrition claims and novel foods, with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, having responsibility for enforcement of the legislation. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources was responsible for the policy on labelling of fish and fish products, with the FSAI again responsible for enforcement. My Department was responsible for policy relating to legislation on the labelling of specific products ranging from beef, poultry and sugar to spirit drinks, coffee and fruit juices. The FSAI 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 my 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 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 my Department 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.

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 regulations requires poultry meat, 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.

In addition, 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 currently 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 are purchasing beef over the counter in butcher shops or supermarkets or opting 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 interest and to ensure that the consumer is properly informed. Ireland is a major exporter of food and food products and, indeed, 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 Council of Agriculture Ministers on 28 February this year I indicated my views on labelling of foodstuffs and I, 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.