David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 120: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the action taken and initiatives developed in the past 12 months by his Department to improve food labelling in particular the traceability of meat products; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20310/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Health & Children has overall responsibility for the general food labelling legislation. At present EU food labelling legislation is harmonised by Council Directive 2000/13/EC, transposed in 2002, with 8 amendments since. In January 2008, the European Commission presented its proposals to update this legislation which aims to provide a high level of consumer protection in relation to food information while ensuring the smooth functioning of the internal market.

The draft EU proposal consolidates and updates two areas of labelling legislation, general food and nutrition. The key issues are country of origin labelling, mandatory nutrition labelling and allergen labelling. The Commission has proposed that while country of origin labelling is not mandatory, where it is used, the country of birth, rearing and slaughter of the animal must be stated, if different to the country of origin. This proposal is currently being discussed at working group meetings. The Irish authorities submitted a position paper on the draft EU proposal to the EU commission in November 2008. In this paper, Ireland proposed that country of origin labelling be made mandatory. The Department of Health and Children has continued to pursue this request at EU Working Group meetings. The Regulation is expected to be finalised by end of 2009 at the earliest.

Notwithstanding the outcome of the current review on origin labelling my Department had taken steps to try to introduce origin labelling for meats other than beef, which is already subject to specific legislation since September 2000.

In conjunction with the Department of Health and Children, regulations were drafted 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. The Commission's main contention is that only harmonised rules with EU-wide applicability may be applied to food labelling other than in exceptional circumstances. In March, the EU Commission delivered a negative opinion on the regulations but afforded Ireland an opportunity to provide further information in support of them. Notwithstanding that additional information was provided, the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health formally adopted a negative opinion on the draft regulations in December 2008.

The issue of origin labelling will continue to be pursued by Ireland at EU level in the context of the current review of the labelling Directive and in the context of the review of EU quality policy for agricultural foodstuffs. It should be noted that products carrying the Bord Bia quality assurance label provide consumers with assurance on product origin.