Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 187: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the action she has taken to request the EU Commission to reform the food labelling laws regarding country of origin and lightly processed foods; when the expected changes in EU labelling laws will be made to clarify country of origin and country of processing; and if she has proposed that the country of origin of meat products be made mandatory rather than in cases in which information is potentially misleading. [40614/08]

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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General labelling is currently governed by Directive 2000/13/EC, which makes compulsory the indication of particulars of the place of origin or provenance only where failure to give such particulars might mislead the consumer to a material degree as to the true origin or provenance of the foodstuff. Under Article 18 of the Directive, national provisions can only be justified on grounds of the protection of public health, the prevention of fraud or unfair competition, and protection of property rights and indications of provenance. The member state, when attempting to introduce regulations in this area, must then receive a positive opinion from the European Commission.

In the Commission's proposal on the provision of food information to the consumer, issued in January 2008, a similar provision is made. In addition, however, allowance is made for a voluntary national measure, with mandatory requirements. Where a Food Business Operator chooses to use country of origin labelling, Article 35 of the proposal states that "where the country of origin or the place of provenance of the food is not the same as the one of its primary ingredient(s), the country of origin or place of provenance of those ingredient(s) shall also be given". It adds that, "for meat, other than beef and veal, the indication on the country of origin or place of provenance may be given as a single place only where animals have been born, reared and slaughtered in the same country or place. In other cases information on each of the different places of birth, rearing and slaughter shall be given."

Ireland submitted its position paper on the Food Information proposal on 5 November 2008. In this proposal, Ireland pressed for mandatory country of origin labelling for all foodstuffs. Ireland suggested that, for meat, information be also given regarding the country of birth, rearing and slaughter (where different from the country of origin). Department of Health and Children will continue to pursue this issue through the EU Working Group charged with developing the proposal. It is expected that the proposal will not be finalised until at least late 2009.