Written answers

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Department of Health and Children

Food Labelling

9:00 pm

Photo of Arthur MorganArthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the progress made by her in the context of the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers; the way she will pursue harmonised EU rules on origin labelling through this regulation; if she will make available the relevant policy documentation and correspondence on this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37058/09]

Photo of Trevor SargentTrevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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At present EU food labelling legislation is harmonised by Council Directive 2000/13/EC, transposed in 2002, with several amendments since. In January 2008, the European Commission presented its proposals on updating and harmonising this legislation. The proposal is still under discussion. This proposal consolidated existing legislation in the area of food labelling and introduced new provisions for Country of Origin Labelling, a mandatory nutrition declaration and allergen labelling, amongst others.

In November 2008, Ireland submitted its position paper on the proposal. I have arranged for a copy of this position paper to be sent to the Deputy's office. This paper was informed by submissions made to the FSAI by many of the key stakeholders. Ireland's position will be further informed by the outcome of an FSAI Consumer Survey. This ended in June 2009 and final results are expected shortly. In its position paper, Ireland

supports mandatory Country of Origin Labelling,

shares the concerns of a significant number of other member states with regard to National Schemes,

welcomes the proposal for mandatory allergen labelling and supports the highlighting of allergens on labels,

supports the equal treatment of all alcohol products,

asks that consideration should be given to bringing alcohol products into the scope of the legislation,

supports the retention of the Commission's proposal with regard to the use of "per portion" expression alone in certain cases,

does not support the proposal for a minimum font size of 3mm for display of mandatory particulars and suggests that other aids to legibility, such as contrasting background, be explored,

shares the concerns of some other member states regarding possible flaws in the calculation of Reference Intakes,

feels that a lower "significant amount" should be stipulated for foods and beverages with low contents of dried matter,

supports the inclusion of trans fats, in the mandatory nutrition declaration.

During 2009 a number of meetings have taken place at European Union Working Group level, attended by officials from the Department of Health and Children and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. The European Commission labelling proposal, states that, where country of origin is included on the label, the place of birth, rearing and slaughter of the animal, where different from the country of origin must also be stated. On 16th March 2009, the European Parliament examined the proposal. Parliament has indicated however, that it will not be in a position to conduct the first reading of the document until early 2010. The next meeting is due to take place on 26 October 2009.

Ireland is continuing to build support, among other member states for mandatory country of origin labelling. At this stage, the proposal will not be finalised until 2010.

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