Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 186: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if a more comprehensive labelling of imported and local farm produce including restaurant and processed produce will be introduced. [34234/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The main legislation covering the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs is European Council Directive 2000/13/EC. The responsibility for this legislation and food labelling in general rests with the Minister for Health and Children. Within my own area of responsibility, there are a number of pieces of legislation on the labelling of specific products ranging from beef, poultry and sugar to spirit drinks, coffee and fruit juices. All of the food labelling legislation is enforced through the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI.

In respect of beef, we already have in place a full identification, traceability and labelling system under comprehensive EU regulations. The labelling requirements under those regulations extend up to and including retail level and to the point of delivery into hotels, restaurants and catering establishments. These compulsory labelling regulations require all operators and organisations marketing beef within the Community to provide information on the label to enable the beef to be traced back to the animals from which it was derived and must include details on the slaughterhouse, de-boning hall and the country in which the animal was born and reared.

These requirements apply to all beef sold at retail level 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 all the above details are not 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. This information must accompany the beef at retail level, including up to the point of delivery into hotels, restaurants and catering establishments. These regulations are enforced by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

I am in the process of extending the existing beef labelling laws to require information on the "country of origin" of beef to be provided to all consumers in the restaurant and catering sectors. I put specific proposals to Government at the end of June for a legislative framework to facilitate this, by way of an amendment to the 1947 Health Act. The necessary provisions will be included in amendments to the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2005 which is before this session of the Oireachtas. The appropriate regulations are being worked on concurrently and it is the intention to have these cleared at EU level as soon as possible. When the Act is amended and the regulations made "country of origin" information will be available to consumers in respect of all beef served in restaurants, hotels and the whole catering sector in Ireland on a mandatory basis. In the meantime, the various representative bodies including the Irish Hotels Federation, the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the two vintners groups, following discussions with my Department, have all agreed to recommend to their members to provide this information to their customers on a voluntary basis in advance of the mandatory legal requirement. It is expected that the voluntary code will be in place in the near future.

Regarding the labelling of poultry meat, there are EU regulations which provide for the labelling of unprocessed poultry meat at retail level. The regulations require such poultry meat to be labelled with the information regarding class, price per kg, condition, registered number of slaughterhouse or cutting plant and, where imported from a third country, an indication of country of origin. There are no specific EU regulations governing the labelling of pigmeat or sheepmeat beyond the general food labelling regulations which do not require "country of origin" information.

The next step in meat labelling generally is to seek to extend the requirements on the provision of information on "country of origin" at retail level to cover poultry meat coming from other EU member states. The extension of labelling requirements to the pigmeat and sheepmeat sectors in relation to the country of origin is not a straightforward matter. The proposed amendment to the 1947 Health Act will include the enabling provisions to facilitate the making of national regulations along these lines. However, EU approval will also be required and there is no precedent so far for individual member states being allowed to extend meat labelling requirements internally beyond providing information which is already required in EU laws.

There has also been a lot of concern expressed about products imported into the Community and then processed in some way allowing it to be described as a product of that member state. This is known as "substantial transformation" in the context of European customs regulations. Accordingly, any changes in this regard would have to be made with the agreement of the other member states. In this context, the Commission is at present conducting a review of food labelling and my Department will continue to pursue this matter with the EU authorities. However, I intend to pursue further the question of labelling of other meats at EU level.