Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 398: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if all food and food products on sale here are accurately labelled to reflect the country of origin and full traceability; if there are notable exceptions; the action taken or proposed to address these issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25967/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Health & Children has overall responsibility for the general food labelling legislation. Under the general labelling Directive (2000/13/EC), the place of origin of the foodstuff must be given only if its absence might mislead the consumer to a material degree.

EU beef labelling legislation requiring country of origin labelling of beef has been in place since September 2000. As this legislation did not cover beef sold by the catering trade my Department collaborated with the Department of Health & Children to have national legislation enacted to require that all beef sold or served in the retail or catering sector is now required to carry an indication of the country of origin. This legislation is enforced by the FSAI.

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, condition, registered number of slaughterhouse or cutting plant and, where imported from a Third Country, an indication of country of origin.

My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Children, drafted regulations that would require the country of origin to be indicated on pigmeat, poultry and sheepmeat. This was notified to the EU Commission in December 2007 as required by legislation. The Commission was not prepared to adopt the draft regulations in their present format on the grounds that the proposed legislation is not in compliance with EU food labelling regulations. However, it indicated that it will reconsider the draft measures once we have submitted additional explanatory information. This information is currently being prepared for transmission to the Commission.

The EU has 36 specific marketing standards covering fresh fruit and vegetables. Apart from quality criteria these standards also set down strict provisions regarding labelling, these include country of origin. The EU Commission is currently reforming the Common Organisation of the market for fruit and vegetables. As part of this process a number of the existing specific standards will be replaced by a general standard which will cover a wider range of fruit and vegetables. I will continue to press for progress, as I believe consumers are entitled to full information on the labelling of food products.